The Unions should ditch Labour

Yesterday the GMB Union broke the news that their affiliation to the Labour Party would be a major debating point at their conference. The Union which funds the Labour party to the tune of £2 million a year has a number of members who want to server ties with Ed Miliband's party. There is a lot of disillusion with Ed and his party's unwillingness to stand up for working people. This presents a welcome debate in my opinion (I may be slightly biased, but) I don't believe that being a member of a union should mean having to financially support one particular political party. The idea that Labour speaks for the working classes is simply not true, they may speak for some of us but other working class people prefer the views of Mebyon Kernow, or Plaid Cymru, or the SNP the Green Party or one of the myriad of socialist and communist parties. Not to mention the many working class people who are not left wing, the idea that poor people vote Labour and rich people vote Tory ignores the fact that there are more working class people yet time and again the Tories are voted into office. I don't think that Union support should be the sole preserve of the Labour party, as the unions are finding now there is no guarantee that the Labour party will support the will of the Unions and their memberships. There are many of us that are members and voters of other parties yet have to fund a party we do not support, this is not right. What the solution should be should be up to the unions of course. But why not give members the option which party to fund with their dues? In fact why fund any party at all? Do the Unions needs a political backer to further the improvement of the conditions of workers?