TSSA union members vote to keep political fund

Members of the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) trade union have voted to keep their political fund, which goes towards campaigning for policies to help their members, as well as reaffirming their links to the Labour Party.

Unions have been required to ballot members on whether they want to keep their political fund every ten years ever since the Tories brought through the legislation in the 1980s – and since then there have been no high profile cases of members voting against one.

The TSSA announced today that members have voted to keep theirs by a margin of 89% to 11% – up from a 78% approval a decade ago. The turnout for the ballot was 25%, which is fairly high for a union ballot of this nature. The higher vote in favour of the fund will come as good news to the Labour leadership, as another major unions’ members send a message that they wish to keep their affiliation to the Party – especially with the Collins’ reforms into Labour/union links set to be implemented over the coming years.

Manuel Cortes, the union’s General Secretary, said he was “delighted” with the big majority, saying it was proof that “members fully recognise that to be effective our union also needs to have a strong political voice.”

As a transport union, the TSSA played a role in helping shape Labour’s new policy for the railways, with them supporting a full renationalisation of franchises.