Trade unions

Bob Crow’s death is a shock – he was only 52 – but it also signals the end of old-school style union operating. Crow was a real old-fashioned union boss. He cared only about the deals for his workers, not the wider party political machinations that other leaders such as Len McCluskey and Paul Kenny like to embroil themselves in. As Ed wrote in March, he focused on the interests of working people without much regard to anything else, including regular rage from commuters. His union was the first to be booted out of the Labour party after a series of rows which culminated in RMT refusing to sever links

At a special Labour conference last week, Ed Miliband pushed through his much-trumpeted reforms to the party’s relationship with the unions. But, much as he is laying claim to be the victor in this battle, in truth the war is still ongoing. The latest friendly fire has come from Lord Cashpoint, Michael Levy – Tony Blair’s chief tapper-upper of the rich – who spoke out on Monday to urge Miliband to seek more private donations from the super-wealthy, just as Blair and Levy did with so much success. The reality, though, is that Miliband has been quietly doing his best to drum up money from private donors, notwithstanding his very

If Ed Miliband wanted to use this speech – rather than the one he gave two weeks ago to the Trades Union Congress – to set up a confrontation with the trade union barons, then he’s got a funny way of doing confrontation. His section on party reform, which he rather built up by joking ‘here’s the bit you’ve all been looking forward to – party reform’. Everyone laughed, expecting a lengthy section on why the union link needed to change. But it wasn’t particularly lengthy or enlightening. He said: ‘Now let me say to you – change is difficult and uncomfortable. Let me explain to you why it’s so

listen to ‘Len McCluskey: ‘If our party is to have a future it must speak for working people and organised labour’’ on Audioboo

When Margaret Thatcher won the 1979 election, she was helped into Downing Street by what many of today’s politicians would regard as an unlikely group of Tory voters. The votes of trade unionists were crucial to Margaret Thatcher beating Jim Callaghan in 1979. And this didn’t happen by accident – Mrs Thatcher, the one-time President of the Dartford branch of Conservative Trade Unionists had made active efforts to appeal to those moderate trade unionists who felt let down by their leaders. After becoming leader in 1975, she set out to revive Conservative Trade Unionists. By the 1979 election, the organisation had 250 branches and was able to hold a pre-election

Who donates to Labour? It’s a question asked countless times since Ed Miliband began to reconsider his party’s links with the trade unions but there has been much confusion over the numbers, in particular the importance to Labour of union funding. Here’s a quick guide to who donates how much to the Labour party. 1. How much do Labour receive in donations? In 2012, Labour received £19 million in donations, which is roughly the same as the year before and in 2008, a similar point in the electoral cycle. It’s still down from £25 million at the last general election: For comparison, the Conservative party received £14 million in 2012

Ed Miliband and Harriet Harman are keen to encourage unity at the TUC conference this week, while giving the impression they are determined to forge ahead with reforming the union link to the Labour party. Harman’s speech to the TUC dinner will include a call for unity and an attempt to explain the need for the reforms. She will say: ‘Ours is a deep-rooted and historic link but it is a relationship which has never been set in stone and is always changing. But, the thing that has endured is that our unity is the bulwark against reaction and the only hope for progress. ‘I am proud of the link

When Ed Miliband was booed at the TUC in 2011, there was quiet delight among many of his closest aides. They thought that this jeering would help put some distance between Miliband and the unions and show that he wasn’t their puppet despite the role they had played in his election. But this year, the booing that Miliband is expected to receive will matter far more. Miliband is now engaged in a defining struggle with the union machine over his party reforms. As I say in the Mail on Sunday today, if he doesn’t get them through, then he’ll be a busted flush as a leader. Unite being cleared by

Surprise, surprise — Michael Gove doesn’t think much of Ed Miliband. To keep up the momentum on Labour’s summer of discontent, the Education Secretary gave a speech at Conservative HQ this morning, focusing on Labour’s troubled relationship with the trade unions — again. He was clearly enjoying himself as he compared the Labour leader’s present position to two of the party’s moderate forces: ‘And if anyone thinks I am asking too much I ask simply this – what would Blair do? Indeed, what would even Kinnock have done? ‘The sad truth is that – charming, intelligent, eloquent, thoughtful, generous and chivalrous as Ed Miliband may be – in this critical

The Electoral Commission’s latest release on donations to political parties in the second quarter of 2013 are quite handy for the Tories. Firstly, there’s the caveat that no party really benefits from discussing funding because everyone ends up looking a little bit grubby, and because the only thing grubbier and more unattractive to voters would be full state funding of political parties, then this will always be a grubby-looking business. So of course there are donations from big business to the Conservative party (although the biggest individual donor to the Tories was in fact a woman who wanted to donate money to the ‘government of the day’ in her will,