CWU warns money going to Labour set to fall

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has warned that the amount of money going from the union to the Labour party is set to fall.

This is following the opt-in reforms. Under these, Labour’s relationship with the unions and their member changes from the tradition ‘opt out’ from party affiliations, to asking trade unionists to choose to ‘opt in’.

The CWU has 200,000 member and under the new rules, they are asking members if they want to continue paying an affiliation fee to the Labour party, and become affiliated members.

At their annual conference in Bournemouth, which took place yesterday (Sunday 26th April), deputy general secretary Andy Kerr said he thinks there will be a “very substantial drop” in the number of CWU members choosing to make this payment.

Conference delegates decided to divert a large proportion of the money that came from not automatically affiliating members to the Trade Union and Labour Party Liaison Organisation (TULO) – which co-ordinates the activities of the unions affiliated to the Labour party.

While it’s not yet known how many members are choosing to opt, it’s almost certain that the amount of money will decrease.