Top union leaders are better paid than their counterparts in the private sector - and they do it by holding the nation to ransom, says Matthew Sinclair.
Old-fashioned socialist firebrand trade-union representatives must be a little disappointed. Trade union leaders are supposed to be scourges of the rich, ensuring the money is taken for the workers in egalitarian redistribution. But when they look from trade unionist to capitalist, and from capitalist to trade unionist, and from trade unionist to capitalist again, it is impossible to say which is which.
In their latest returns to the Certification Officer, 36 trade unions have reported that they gave their general secretaries or chief executives pay and benefits of more than £100,000. That compares pretty well with the private sector.