Union Numbers Game

The reporting of the Falkirk firestorm has made countless references to Unite as ‘Labour’s biggest donor’ and ‘Britain’s biggest union’ - the former is certainly the case given that two thirds of UNISON members pay a political fund levy to the union’s General Political Fund rather than Labour Link. However a recent independent analysis of Unite’s finance and membership data confirms that Unite’s full (working) member count is 1,101,255 – some 185,000 fewer full members than UNISON’s 1,286,000 full (working members) – making UNISON by a substantial degree Britain’s biggest union of working trade unionists:
http://hopisen.com/2013/len-fiddling-while-unite-burns/