UNISON reviews political funds

Public services union UNISON is conducting a second consultation into the operation of its political funds to decide how to deal with new law in this area. 


The Trade Union Act 2016 requires unions to ensure contributing members “opt in” to a political fund rather than leaving those who don’t wish to contribute to “opt out”. Unions say this will make it harder to collect political fund contributions.


UNISON has two political funds — a general campaigning fund and one affiliated to the Labour Party, with members able to contribute to none, one or both. While the new law is detrimental, the union says, it is “determined to put in place a new settlement for the political fund that will minimise the impact”. 


It has already consulted widely among members and activists, and has run trials of possible systems, to establish some principles for future operation. From this it has concluded that it would be best to keep two separate funds and that the contributions should, as now, be based on a percentage of members’ individual income.


However, it proposes to harmonise contributions at 5%, compared with two different rates previously (3% for the general fund and 6.5% for the Labour-affiliated one). In addition, it proposes that new members will pay the same ordinary membership subscription rate as current members, with the political fund contribution on top for those who opt in.

https://www.unison.org.uk/content/uploads/2017/10/Political-fund-consultation-Oct2017-Jan2018-2.pdf