General Election 2015: Postal workers union to vote on cutting ties to Labour

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Angry postal and telecoms workers are trying to cut their union’s ties to Labour, which could blow a £500,000 hole in the cash-strapped party’s finances.

Several motions to the Communications Workers Union (CWU) conference in Bournemouth have called for a review of the 200,000-strong group’s links with Labour and a reduction in affiliation fees. These fees give trade unions certain rights within the party, such as selecting members of the powerful National Executive Committee.

Postal workers do not believe that Labour fought hard enough to prevent the privatisation of Royal Mail in late 2013, which some MPs have argued was sold for up to £1bn less than its correct value. Lord Mandelson, as Business Secretary under Gordon Brown, also annoyed them by proposing the part-privatisation of the five-century-old service before abandoning the idea in 2009.

A motion from the Western Counties regional branch accuses Labour of having “distanced itself from the trade union movement”, and calls on the CWU to form a working group to compare the manifestos of the Greens, the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru with that of the Labour Party. This group would decide which party best reflects “the goals” of the CWU, whose members include workers in BT and Parcelforce. A ballot would then be held to select the one to which it pays the affiliation fees.

Paul Wotton, the Western Counties branch secretary, told The Independent on Sunday: “We [Royal Mail] were privatised, albeit by a Tory-led government, but Labour didn’t assist us to keep it public. In fact, the last Labour government also tried to sell us off. Do people feel they’ve been supported by Labour? Maybe not.”

A motion from the Coventry Merged branch states: “Conference notes the Labour Party’s failure to agree to reverse the cuts and privatisations and anti-union laws introduced by the Tories and the coalition government… Conference recognises that an urgent debate is now required within the union as to how we can best address the democratic deficit created when the main parties all support policies promoting austerity and privatisation.”

The Northern Ireland Telecoms branch has asked conference to pass a motion that the CWU will not financially contribute to Labour’s general election campaigns in the future, unless the party pledges to “significantly improve the rights and entitlements” of workers involved in employment tribunals.

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Although the motions are likely to fail, they come at an embarrassing time for Labour, with the election just 11 days away, and are understood to have the tacit approval of the incoming CWU leadership. The motions are expected to lead to a longer-term debate within the CWU over ways of reforming its relationship with Labour, including moves to non-political affiliation.

Dave Ward , the general secretary-elect, who defeated long-standing leader Billy Hayes earlier this month, vowed in campaign literature that there would be “no more something for nothing, or blind loyalty to Labour”.

In an interview with The Morning Star this weekend, Mr Wells said that he wants to “assert our policies over politics, not the other way round”, and favours only supporting MPs who share the union’s views. These would not have to be Labour MPs. He would also like to see members of other parties sitting on the CWU’s political committee.

A senior CWU official added: “The new general secretary ran partly on a platform that there needs to be a new debate over links with Labour. Lots of people are dissatisfied with what Labour has done.”

Although Ed Miliband has orchestrated reforms of Labour’s long-standing links with the unions, it remains financially dependent upon them. In the first week of the 2015 election campaign, Labour received £1.6m from Unite, Unison and the CWU.

Senior members of the Shadow Cabinet have also admitted that Labour does not have enough money left over to fight a second general election this year, which they view as an increasingly possible scenario.

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