a brief History of trade unions and voting reform

By Mary Southcott

After the Great Reform Act, 1832, there were moves to find representation with the Tolpuddle Martyrs and the Chartists.  Since the formation of the Trade Union Congress in 1868 at the Manchester Mechanics’ Institute, many trade unionists have supported electoral reform.  Voting reform was often linked with broadening the franchise, especially at first to allow men to vote and then universal franchise on equal terms.

It seems likely that early trade unionists, men and women, also supported voting reform especially such names as Annie Besant, Keir Hardie, Mary Macarthur, Eleanor Marx, Will Thorne, Benjamin Tillett were around during this debate.  

Although once there was full male franchise in 1918, the fortune of the Labour Party changed.  It replaced the Liberal Party in a two party system. During the Second World War Reg Underhill moved a resolution at the TUC from his trade council on electoral reform, which resurfaced at that time because Labour could not put up candidates against the Government.  He was a founder member of the Association of Professional, Executive, Clerical and Computer Staff.  He became Labour’s National Agent and was a member of the Plant Commission in 1990 when he supported electoral reform.  

In the more recent past, affiliated trade unions have supported the debate inside the Labour Party on our voting system, supported a referendum in 1997.  In 1998 before the Jenkins Commission reported, Tom Watson and Mary Southcott wrote a concordat, signed by Stephen Twigg, as LCER Chair and Ken Jackson as AEEU General Secretary, so that the critical resolution against Jenkins was remitted by Conference.  

On the whole Trade Unionists were allowed a free vote on Alternative Vote in the disastrous Referendum in 2011.  That was the wrong system, at the wrong time.

A few trade unions, such as TSSA and ASLEF have policy on electoral reform.  But the larger affiliated trade unions, the GMB, UNISON, UNITE and USDAW have depriorised constitutional reform and failed to make the link between bread and butter issues and the voting system which elects MPs.  

One unaffiliated trade union, has supported and pioneered work on voting reform, consulted its membership and required the TUC to do work on voting systems.  This is the PCS. The trade union documents can be read here, https://www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/extras/touchstoneelectoralreform.pdf, which itself is a reworking of a previous document,

After a successful LCER fringe at the 2017 TUC Congress, organised by Billy Hayes, LCER’s Trade Union Officer, and having on the platform, Nancy Platts, now Brighton Council Leader and former advisor to Jeremy Corbyn, UNITE Deputy Leader, Howard Beckett, and Mary Southcott, LCER Parliamentary and Political Officer, the Electoral Reform Society set up a Trade Union campaign, the Politics of the Many, see https://politicsforthemany.co.uk/.  

LCER Model Resolution for Trade Unions

[This union] notes that many trade unionists have traditionally supported First Past the Post, the voting system used for UK general elections since the 18th Century.

We believe that many of the arguments historically advanced in support of FPTP are no longer valid in a modern multi-party political system.

• FPTP has been said to deliver "strong" government. In fact it has delivered Conservative-led coalitions in two of the last three elections.

• FPTP is said to be simple. In fact FPTP is anything but simple for the millions of people who have to decide between voting for the party they support, and voting tactically for a party they do not support but may have a chance of winning a seat.
  
• FPTP has been said to provide a shortcut opportunity for the Labour Party to implement a radical programme on a minority of votes. In fact, in the UK FPTP delivers Conservative goverments about twice as often as Labour governments - and many of these Conservative governments would not have been returned to power under a proportional voting system.
  

We note further that the vast majority of democratic countries use proportional voting systems, and research shows that left-leaning governments with redistributive programmes are elected more often under proportional systems than under FPTP.

EITHER [weaker]

We note that the Labour Party has pledged to set up a constitutional convention to examine and bring forward democratic reform.

We support the establishment of this constitutional convention, and believe that it should include in its remit an investigation into  alternative voting systems to FPTP.

We call upon the Labour Party to include a commitment to introducing a more proportional voting system in its next manifesto.

Politics for the Many: Model Resolution for Trade Unions

[Note: this is a general motion on democratic reform. LCER recommends the addition of an additional clause (d) in italics, to make it clear that a programme of reform should include electoral reform for the House of Commons.]

This union believes that for politics to favour the many and not the few, our democracy is in urgent need of reform.

Reform is essential for delivering economic and social justice and addressing growing regional inequalities across the UK.

We recognise that the state, its institutions and how we regulate society have been captured by big corporations and a small elite group of people based mainly in London. They do not act in the interests of working people and the trade unions who represent them.

At the heart of our democracy should sit the sovereignty of the people and rights of citizens. Instead, we have an unelected House of Lords that is outdated, unrepresentative and increasingly irrelevant.

If power continues to be hoarded at Westminster we cannot achieve social and economic change and advance the goals of trade unions and working people across all parts of the UK.

We are in a democratic crisis and reform is an urgent priority.

This union supports:

a.) The need to make democratic reform a priority to achieve lasting change for working people

b.) The abolition of the House of Lords to be replaced with a Senate of the Nations and Regions to strengthen the voice of all parts of the United Kingdom. The Senate should provide a place for cross-border working, issue resolution and collaboration as well as acting as a revising chamber for UK legislation.

c.) An English Constitutional Convention that allows citizens to choose what they want for their communities and have a say in their own governing arrangements to continue the UK’s process of devolution.

d) A voting system for Westminster which makes votes count, which reaches out to safe Labour seats and which illustrates how Labour will exercise power with the people.