PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
POLITICAL FUND BALLOTS FOR TRADE UNION MEMBERS (4 March 2003)

That this House welcomes the recent result of the political fund ballot by Connect, the union for professionals in communications, with 81 per cent. of members voting in favour of retaining the political fund; notes that this is the third time Connect members have voted positively to keep the political fund; further notes the time and expense involved in running such a ballot; believes that it is time to modernise the law in this area, accepting that unions have a natural role to play in influencing the law on behalf of their members particularly in areas such as employment law, employment relations and pensions legislation; and further believes that, as individual members have the right to opt out of paying into a political fund, the Government should amend existing legislation to remove the need for 10-yearly ballots on political funds.

Sponsored by:
Lord Mann (Labour)