{"id":3367,"date":"2015-03-17T13:55:13","date_gmt":"2015-03-17T13:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=3367"},"modified":"2015-03-17T13:57:49","modified_gmt":"2015-03-17T13:57:49","slug":"union-link-not-for-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=3367","title":{"rendered":"Union link not for sale"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Asseem Allam, millionaire owner of Hull City AFC, wants to completely sever the link between Labour and the organisations that founded the party\u00e2\u20ac\u201dtrade unions.<\/p>\n

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As the Sunday Times reported on March 15<\/a>, Allam said he would offer a future one-off donation to Labour if it weakened its trade union ties, and pledged an additional \u00c2\u0141500,000 on the absurd condition that Unite withdraws its funding to the sole party representing working people.<\/p>\n

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Unite general secretary Len McCluskey argued that Allam has failed to understand the ethos shared by both trade unions and Labour.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAsseem Allam seems to want to replace Unite, but support for Labour is about values far more than money,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWill Allam pay the \u00c2\u01411.5m annual affiliation fee that underpins the day-to-day running of the party? Will he match the \u00c2\u01413m donated by Unite members to the Labour Party\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s election campaign? Will he put in the hours to pound the streets, deliver the leaflets and man the polling booths as our members will? A Labour Party victory will not be won on the back of one-off donations from fair-weather supporters,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 McCluskey added.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt comes as no surprise to me that Assem Allam is trying to use his money to weaken the historic link between the union movement and the Labour Party,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he continued. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bAs any fan of Hull City will tell you, Allam is no stranger to changing the very identity of a century old institution for the sake of furthering his own fortunes and personal vanity.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Indeed, at the helm of Hull City AFC, Allam \u00e2\u20ac\u015brebranded\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 the 111-year-old club to Hull Tigers, amidst overwhelming community and fan opposition, arguing that it would enhance the club\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s global appeal (business-speak for generating more revenue).<\/p>\n

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While the Football Association Council refused Allam\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bid to officially change the name in 2014, the Council said yesterday (March 16) <\/a>that it would allow Allam to appeal the decision. Allam has said that he will no longer invest in the club if the name is not changed \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a clear indicator that for Allam, money means absolute control.<\/p>\n

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McCluskey emphasised that support for Labour meant support for certain values–values that Allam, in his business dealings, clearly has not held.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf Allam truly wishes to support Labour, he should lead by example and adopt our values by paying his staff at Hull City a living wage,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

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A report from Citizens UK<\/a> in December 2013 found that the lowest paid workers at Hull City earned the statutory minimum wage of \u00c2\u01416.31 at the time, whereas Allam\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s net worth was \u00c2\u0141650,000.<\/p>\n

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Asseem Allam, millionaire owner of Hull City AFC, wants to completely sever the link between Labour and the organisations that founded the party\u00e2\u20ac\u201dtrade unions.     As the Sunday Times reported on March 15, Allam said he would offer a future one-off donation to Labour if it weakened its trade union ties, and pledged an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[224,210],"wps_subtitle":"Millionaire football boss' bid to weaken Labour's links with unions ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3367"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3367"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3369,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3367\/revisions\/3369"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}