How does Conference voting work?
From its foundation, the Labour Party has been a partnership of working people, through their unions, and Party members. That’s why we make decisions together at Conference, with unions and CLPs each getting half the votes.
Half a million Party members are represented by CLP delegates, and millions of working people are represented by Trade Union delegates. When votes are close, or if someone requests one, the Chair can call a card vote. A show of hands isn’t always a good indication of what the result would be on a card vote, partly because there’s usually more CLP delegates than Trade Union delegates. During a card vote each CLP and union casts the exact number of votes for the people they represent, and these sets of votes are then weighted so both represent half of the total.
It’s a little complicated, but it’s fair – all union and party members are accounted for, and we make decisions as an equal partnership.
How do unions make decisions?
Trade unions are democratic, member-led bodies, grounded in the workplace, with reps elected to fight for members at work, and represent them in the union. The union’s priorities, campaigns and policies are decided by members and elected reps through each union’s individual structures.
Policy positions come up from the workplace, are taken forward by elected reps, and are debated, discussed and voted on by union conferences to become collective union policy.
Unions are based on the principle of collectivism – because we know from the workplace that we’re stronger when we stick together. That’s why each union’s delegates tend to vote the same way – because they’re there to represent union policy, decided by the members, not their individual view.
From time to time, issues come up at Labour Conference that a union doesn’t have policy on – these issues are normally debated and discussed by the delegation to agree a joint position.
Who are union delegates?
Unions are all different, but delegations to Labour Party Conference are generally made up of union activists who have been elected to represent their fellow members. They’re all individual members of the Labour Party.
Why do unions sometimes seem to be voting together?
Each union decides what position to take on the different issues that are discussed at Party Conference. Where a union has set policy on a particular issue, that will determine how their delegates vote – because their delegates are there to represent democratically-agreed union policy.
Sometimes, trade unions talk to each other about whether they can all support a particular position. Because unions believe in collectivism, and that we’re stronger when we stick together, it’s natural they will see if there’s a consensus across the movement. Sometimes they can agree, and adopt a joint position, but other times they have different policies and they have to agree to disagree.