Len McCluskey, leader of the UK’s largest trade union, Unite, has written to Prime Minister David Cameron urging him to introduce online voting for trade union strike ballots. In a compromise on the Government’s new legislation to introduce minimum voter turnouts in strike ballots of 50%, McCluskey said if the Prime Minister allows online voting, ‘thresholds wouldn’t be an issue.’
Speaking ahead of the Conservative Party’s conference in Manchester, McCluskey said that he has asked the Prime Minister to meet with trade unions to talk about ‘new methods, modern methods of balloting.’ If the Prime Minister were to accept this reform, McCluskey said he would not oppose the proposed thresholds and time limits on workplace ballots.
Writing in WebRoots Democracy’s Viral Voting report, Frances O’Grady, General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress said that ‘it is in everyone’s interest to ensure that as many people as possible participate’ and that ‘online voting is the way to bring balloting bang up to date.’
Following the recent elections of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader and Zac Goldsmith as the Conservative’s London Mayor candidate, all main political parties in the UK (Conservatives, Labour, SNP, Liberal Democrats, Greens) have now adopted online voting for their own party elections.
81% voted online in the Labour leadership election making it the largest online voting election in UK history.
Do you think the UK should introduce an online voting option for elections? Take a moment to sign and share our e-petition.
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