The news elsewhere is not so good. A motion to cut the amount we pay for union activities in Leeds was defeated, and it is the same story in another West Yorkshire Council, Kirklees. We pay £400K to help fund the unions in Leeds, and £339K in Kirklees.

There is some brighter news from London though. The Guido Fawkes blog reports that Jane Pilgrim (the nurse who worked full-time for her union, instead of tending the sick) has lost her cushy number at St George’s Hospital in Tooting.  She is now back working as a nurse – the job we pay her for in the first place. There is some justice in this world after all.

If you spot any similar stories in your local newspaper, please get in touch.

Today the Conservative Group at Bradford City Council have revealed that the local authority is spending £300,000 a year on the wages and offices of trade union staff.  Councillor Miller, Leader of the Conservative group on the council stated “council’s have a duty to ensure value for money for the taxpayer and I call upon the Labour leadership to respond to the Minister’s call for the merits of union officials and office facilities funded by councils to be urgently reviewed”.

Bradford City Hall

That is a lot of money for an authority with significant pressures on its finances.  In December last year Councillor Greenwood, the Leader of Bradford Council said: “The cuts for the next financial year will still have a massive affect on us. It’s still several thousand jobs almost certainly, it’s still a massive effect on frontline services and it’s still people not getting the services they so desperately need … the Council had been taking action for months to secure substantial savings, including cutting bureaucracy and duplication, and prioritising our available resources on the vital services local people need.”

If money is so tight at the council – and they are trying to deliver value for money, surely Councillor Greenwood will support saving £300,000 by ending taxpayer funding of trade union officials? The unions should pay for their own staff through membership subs, not with our money. The £300,000 spent in Bradford should be used to provide services for residents, not subsidise trade unions.

If you want to help us put pressure on politicians to stop this gross subsidy, we’ve written about what you can do here .