Trade unions have always had to act politically – to campaign for changes in the law to be able to organise and win for their members.

There are still laws in place that restrict trade union activities, including restrictions on trade unions acting politically. In order to spend any money on political activities, trade unions are required to create a separate ‘political fund’.

Every ten years, they have to hold an all member vote on whether or not they can continue to hold a political fund.

The EIS operates such a political fund, which allows us to campaign on broad issues such as government and local authority budgets, and cuts to the funding of education by local and national politicians. It also allows us to fund publicity campaigns on matters such as reducing class contact time, and protecting instrumental music in schools.

However, the EIS is neither affiliated to, nor aligned with, any political party; accordingly the EIS political fund does not pay into, or contribute to, any political party. The fund is used purely to pursue EIS campaigning on issues that could be deemed as political.

The EIS uses its political fund to defend members’ interests in Scottish Parliament, UK Parliament, in Europe and on all matters of government policy and legislation. Without such a fund, we could be prevented from lobbying to change policies or legislation which affect members’ working lives.

Members have always had the right to opt out of contributing to the political fund. In 2016, the Conservative Government introduced new restrictions on trade union political funds – new members of the union now have to actively opt-in to paying an additional political levy in order for any of their union membership fees to be spent on political activity.

In this edition of the SEJ, we highlight just some of the recent successes in EIS campaigning, supported by member contributions to the political fund. Without such a fund, the ability of the EIS to campaign, and win, on behalf of its members would be significantly curtailed.

The EIS strongly encourages all members, both long-standing and newly-joined, to contribute to the political fund. The current cost is just £1.80 per member, per year, and this small investment helps to ensure that the EIS remains a strong campaigning union that can effectively represent the interests of our members on all key issues.

The EIS political fund supports you on the issues that matter – please support it, and opt to pay the political fund levy with your subscription each year.

To opt-in to the EIS political fund please contact the membership department at membership@eis.org.uk.