Unite union advertising on TV

[FourWheelDrift]

I've just been told Unite the Union everyone loves to hate had an advert running on ITV at lunchtime. The same Unite who are currently trying to destroy British Airways through strikes and have funded the Labour Party to the tune of £11million and saving Labour from going bust by underwriting it's debts. So they have been running a full TV advert campaign have they, I wonder why? Not election campaigning already, surely not? The parties are only allowed to advertise a certain number of times when an election is on and Labour wouldn't be using Unite in it's own interest, would it? Naughty.

The Labour Party are after all known as the political wing of Unite.

[grumbledoak]

Didn't see it, but it wouldn't surprise me. Labour recently redirected some of our Foreign Aid budget to Unite, too. No doubt that is now bailing out the Labour party itself, which was bordering bankrupt. All as bent as a nine pound note. No lovers of democracy, either.

Banana Republic, anyone?

[MX7]

FourWheelDrift said:

The parties are only allowed to advertise a certain number of times when an election is on and Labour wouldn't be using Unite in it's own interest, would it? Naughty.

Unions have been advertising on TV for a few years now. I don't think it's anything underhanded, any more than a company who donate to the Tories advertising on TV.

FourWheelDrift said:

The Labour Party are after all known as the political wing of Unite.

I don't think it's quite as straightforward as that. Have you seen what Brown said about the BA strike?

[FourWheelDrift]

Up until this morning he had said nothing as usual. Now he comes out with something that has been carefully planned as they thought it could lose more votes than continue to say nothing. Especially as Lord Adonis had already said it's unjustified and deplorable, so rather then look his normal silly self Winky has trotted out similar words but he still won't publically blame Unite for the strike though.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politic...

Telegraph said:

Union officials were said to be “livid” at Lord Adonis’s “uninformed” and “blundering” intervention on Sunday. They contacted Downing Street to insist ministers should not blame them for the industrial action, which could affect 500,000 BA passengers.

While Downing Street insists Lord Adonis was speaking for the Government as a whole, Mr Brown was careful to avoid criticising the union on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour this morning.

Asked about the strike, he said: "It's the wrong time. It's unjustifed. It's deplorable."

He added: "It's not in the company's interest, it's not in the workers' interest, it's not in the national interest."

He said that while the strike was "regrettable and not acceptable", ministers should try to act as honest brokers between the company and the trade union, Unite. "It is worthy of effort to try to prevent it," he said.

[D-Angle]

Winky might not want to make the connection with Unite and his criticism of the BA strike, but the news services are doing it for him anyway. This has the potential to greatly annoy Labour's core vote, the ones who would still vote Labour if they were forced to wear identical overalls and work on a factory farm. They won't change their vote, but the potential is there that they might lose the heart to vote at all, something which I think is being underestimated in the forthcoming election.

[ninja-lewis]

FourWheelDrift said:

Up until this morning he had said nothing as usual. Now he comes out with something that has been carefully planned as they thought it could lose more votes than continue to say nothing. Especially as Lord Adonis had already said it's unjustified and deplorable, so rather then look his normal silly self Winky has trotted out similar words but he still won't publically blame Unite for the strike though.

I think Labour are being drawn into the power struggle within Unite. They're supposed to be electing a single general secretary to replace the existing co-General Secretaries created when Amicus and TGWU merged.

The BA situation is a prime example. Before the merger, the TGWU represented most cabin crew through BASSA. But some crew were part of Cabin Crew 89, which became part of Amicus. Even following, the merger they still appear to operate independently. During the expected negotiations, ACAS and TUC couldn't get the two delegations (Amicus and TWGU) to sit in the same room, let alone negotiate with BA as one. Fast forward to Friday, you had Derek Simpson (Amicus) agreeing with BA to not call strikes while they get an extra 3 weeks to put BA's offer to their members. Barely an hour later an Assistant General Secretary, Len McCluskey (TGWU), announced the strike dates. Simpson and Amicus were supposed to be less than pleased when they learnt what he had down.

Now there's no way Brown would made that statement against the Labour party's major backer unless he had the tacit support of senior officials. I reckon Simpson and Woodley have decided McCluskey is a liability and needs to be stopped at all costs from becoming their replacement.

[Zod]

grumbledoak said:

Didn't see it, but it wouldn't surprise me. Labour recently redirected some of our Foreign Aid budget to Unite, too. No doubt that is now bailing out the Labour party itself, which was bordering bankrupt. All as bent as a nine pound note. No lovers of democracy, either.

Banana Republic, anyone?

The whole thing stinks and I cannot believe the Tories are not making more out of it.

Labour is funded by Unite. Brown's closest adviser is Unite's political head. Labour diverts aid budgets to give cash back to Unite. Labout gets round the limits on political advertising by having Unite take out advertisements for itself.

[MX7]

Zod said:

The whole thing stinks and I cannot believe the Tories are not making more out of it.

Why would they, when it appears that Labour are heading for a head on collision with their largest donors?

I also suspect that, while they will never be the closest of allies, the Tories don't want to jeopardise any relationships that they have with the unions. It could make the next 5 years very difficult if they burnt all their bridges now.