Trade unions’ political spend is down

The 28 unions with political funds spent £17.8 million in 2008-09 — a 5% fall on the previous year when they spent £18.76 million.

Five unions spent over £1 million in the period covered by the union watchdog’s annual report. Unite topped the big spenders laying out £6.28 million on its political activities, including its affiliation fee to the Labour Party. UNISON took second spot with £4.47 million while the GMB general union spent £2.93 million. The shop and distribution workers’ union Usdaw spent just under £2 million and the CWU communication workers’ union had a £1.07 million spend.

Total income for the 28 political funds rose by 11.2% to £20.15 million against £18.11 million the year before.

The numbers of members contributing to the political funds of the 28 unions was down to 4.27 million from 4.4 million in 2007-08.

www.certoffice.org/annualReport/pdf/full%20report%20for%20website.pdf