Anyone Else Amazed At This?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32147400
28% of unite members voted Tory! I'm astonished, I thought all union members voted Labour.

[woofgang]

What precisely is Unite?

[Marshwarble]

Only the country's biggest union.

[Baldric]

Unite the Union, known as Unite, is a British and Irish trade union, formed on 1 May 2007, by the merger of Amicus and the Transport and General Workers'

[Mamyalynne]

UNISON is far larger in Membership Marsh.

[jim360]

I think it's because there are basically two classes of union member (more, probably, but whatever). The active ones probably do vote Labour pretty much constantly -- but then the low turnout in strike ballots, etc., tells you that there is a whole section of Union members who just don't get involved really. Such people are going to vote in a more diverse way.

All the "militant" unionists vote Labour (probably). The normal ones are more varied.

[Mamyalynne]

Apologies to you,I have completely misread the figures.

Mea Culpa.

[Prudie]

I'm not that amazed. A lot of people join Unite when they first start out at work and tend to stay with it through their careers, often ending up in managerial positions (which tend to vote Conservative more).

[Gromit]

Not rwally.
I'm sure it it was much higher when the TGL was being elected.

[Buenchico]

>>> I thought all union members voted Labour

There are far more registered trade unions that are NOT in the TUC (which, of course, is affiliated to Labour) than there are within the TUC. Many of those registered trade unions will have a rule barring that union from any party political links at all.

While TUC-affiliated unions get most of media coverage (partly, of course, because they're often the larger unions anyway) there are lots of unions which will happily campaign on issues which are important to their membership (irrespective of which political parties may, or may not, support their aims) but deliberately avoid party politics, per se.

[Jackdaw33]

Without googling can anyone name off the top of his head the name of the General Secretary of the TUC? Back in the 60s/70s George Woodcock, Vic Feather and Len Murray were household names. Not now.

[Gromit]

Margaret Thatcher was a committed trade unionist. The first political office she held was in the Conservative Trade Unionists (CTU). She understood very well something that many Tories now forget: there is a huge difference between the militants and the grassroots members. That is why, as leader of the opposition, she fought hard to recruit members for the CTU.

There are 58 unions in the TUC, only 15 are Labour-affiliated, leaving 43 non-affiliated unions in Britain.

In 2010, a third of Union members voted Conservative.

[Buenchico]

>>>leaving 43 non-affiliated unions in Britain

That should read 'leaving 43 non-affiliated unions in within the TUC'.

There are actually 150 officially 'listed' trade unions in the UK (and 14 more that are recognised as 'scheduled'). As Gromit indicates, only 58 of them are in the TUC and only 15 of those are affiliated to Labour.

[woofgang]

People join unions for many other reasons that political views. I joined by default as my professional body used Unison as a contractor for all their HR issues, unions also sometimes offer excellent shopping deals and discounts.