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View Full Version : Unite unveils £25m strike fund for 'trouble ahead'



bricolage
26th June 2012, 12:05
25 million comes across as a big number but it's unclear how this would be allocated, how willing they would be to use it and, more importantly, how willing they would be to use it on supporting strikes/strikers that went beyond the confines of the set piece affairs we've seen in the 'anti-austerity' movement so far. considering the way unite has behaved previously, this seems an interesting step forwards but I'd be wary of putting too much faith in it.


Britain's largest trade union has set aside a £25m fighting fund to support members taking strike action, warning of "trouble ahead" as a result of government spending cuts.

The Unite union's 1.5 million members cover the spectrum of the British economy, from NHS workers to nuclear submarine engineers and airline cabin crew.

Unite's individual branches are committing 2% of their members' fees to the fund – or £3.5m a year – to cover costs such as strike pay and campaign leaflets. Unite has opened the fund with a £25m lump sum from its own coffers.http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/jun/25/unite-25m-strike-fund

Q
26th June 2012, 16:50
25 million divided by 1.5 million members is around 17 pounds. This is ridiculously low by any standard!

It seems that the union leadership sees "trouble ahead" only for certain sectors or perhaps thinks a strategy of a sector-by-sector based strategy of struggle makes any sense. Either way, Cameron won't loose any sleep over it.