UNISON faces down check-off challenge

Public services union UNISON, which will be 25 years old in July, has announced that it has fought off one of the many pernicious attacks on unions of the Conservatives’ Trade Union Act and largely secured its subscription income.


The Act sought to destabilise unions operating in the public sector by requiring that they must pay employers a “reasonable fee” for deducting union contributions directly from wage packets (known as “check-off”). 


This was a challenge to UNISON, the bulk of whose subscription income is collected in this way.


However, UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis last month told his national executive that the union has agreed new check-off arrangements covering some 8,000 employers.


He said: “Originally the [government’s] plan was to end check-off altogether, and that would have been a massive attack on our union. We fought that off, and now we have put the work in to make sure our union is strong and viable for the future.”


Describing the union as “strong as we approach our 25th anniversary”, Prentis added: “The Trade Union Act was designed to break us, but we haven’t allowed that to happen.”


He urged branches to mobilise for the TUC demonstration on 12 May in London.

https://www.unison.org.uk/news/article/2018/04/unison-25-years-strong