Part of the union?
We promised you the remaining figures from the Labour leadership contest, and here they are.
| Edwina Hart | Carwyn Jones | Huw Lewis | % of college | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASLEF | 0.1659 | 0.0572 | 0.0172 | 0.24026 |
| CWU | 0.8251 | 0.6727 | 0.184 | 1.68182 |
| Community | 0.6711 | 0.3708 | 0.1594 | 1.2013 |
| GMB | 1.6642 | 3.4346 | 1.0278 | 6.12662 |
| Fabian Society | 0.0298 | 0.054 | 0.0363 | 0.12013 |
| Musicians' Union | 0.0474 | 0.1675 | 0.0253 | 0.24026 |
| NUM (Wales) | 0.039 | 0.5226 | 0.039 | 0.60065 |
| Socialist Health Association | 0.0801 | 0.0255 | 0.0146 | 0.12013 |
| TSSA | 0.043 | 0.0628 | 0.0143 | 0.12013 |
| UCATT | 0.0467 | 0.5072 | 0.0467 | 0.60065 |
| Unison Cymru | 1.085 | 4.5443 | 0.6174 | 6.24675 |
| Unite | 5.4755 | 5.0051 | 1.5864 | 12.06703 |
| USDAW | 0.7982 | 1.3041 | 0.5405 | 2.64285 |
| Welsh Council of the Co-operative Party | 0.3047 | 0.3308 | 0.5658 | 1.2013 |
| Welsh Labour Students | 0.0318 | 0.0283 | 0.0601 | 0.12013 |
| 33.33301% |
How the affiliated organisations break is always an interesting sport to Labour Kremlinologists, and this time is no different. Lee has already posted on this, observing the relative shallowness of Unite Boss Andy Richards’s writ. His fulsome endorsement of Edwina resulted in her only very narrowly beating Carwyn Jones for the largest number of that union’s votes. The Bridgend AM meanwhile, comfortably carried those unions who backed him, notably Unison, while the Co-op Party’s endorsement of Huw clearly also counted for something.
In the last thread, Jeff Jones asked when the actual voting figures would become available. The answer from Transport House, I’m told, is never. Percentages will have to do. Ho hum.
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Thanks for this Adam. The fact that the actual voting figures are not going to be released will of course lead to speculation that not many trade unionists actually even bothered to vote. Hardly surprising given the often very low turn out even for internal elections for senior positions in most union. On a more general point it must be of concern too many thta 3 unions have over 24% of the affliated section of the electoral college. All three also have substantial membership in the public sector. If those members were persuaded to vote for candidates because they promised to protect the public sector in the next few years I’m afraid that they are likely to be disappointed. Given as Lee Waters points out that an opinion poll suggested that the majority of Unison members would vote for the Tories, the idea of union members slavishly following the recommendation of full time officers has well and truly been consigned to the dustbin of history. I already know one or two paid up members of other parties who voted in the election. Not surprising really given that with any postal ballot you don’t know who is casting the votes. In the early 1960s I always voted in the elections for the old EETPU. My father who was an electrician couldn’t be bothered and always handed the ballot paper over to me. For the record I always voted for Les Cannon and against the ballot riggers of the old Communist leadership.
So where’s the missing 0.00032%? Is this a rounding error, or is it that there are smaller affiliated organizations (such as UCU and the Woodcraft Folk) missing from the list?
But this is a very very interesting data-set. It seems that several organizations’ members were broadly in-line with the consensus that one candidate had a significant credibility edge on the other two. The significant skew in this third of the electoral college seems to be down to a number of organizations (ASLEF, Community, CWU, Musicians, Socialist Health, Students, and (to a lesser extent Unite) having a radically different interpretation of reality.
It would be interesting to understand why those organizations perceived matters so differently. In some cases (for instance, Socialist Health), the reason is obvious. But what is so different about the world-view of railwaymen?!
I’m in the GMB I was not even asked to vote. seems odd.