Here's where we compile stories about trade unions from other blogs that aren't part of the network. If you've noticed something in another blog, drop us a note with a link and we'll include it here.

Dave Semple @ Liberal Conspiracy: On the surface, the Telegraph reports of £18 million in state funds going to Unite, and its predecessors Amicus and TGWU, from the Labour government seem pretty damning.

HarpyMarx: I was at the Justice for Jane rally organised by the PCS union in Weymouth. To get a good understanding what this case is about please read the Dorset Echo’s article as it encapsulates the gross injustice she has experienced.

Matthew Wood @ The Third Estate: The Communication Workers Union is currently balloting its postal members for national strike action.

Eric Lee @ CommentIsFree: Iranian workers would give anything for Israel's freedoms – the TUC's campaign against Israeli unions helps no one

Left Foot Forward: The Times report today that, "Labour is funding trade union activity inside Whitehall with millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money."

Kate Belgrave @ Liberal Conspiracy: Lousy news from the trade union front, people: The New Labour-loving horrors who run the public sector union Unison have stepped up their campaign to purge their Labour affiliated union of all grassroots socialists and leftwing activists.

Dave Osler @ Liberal Conspiracy: Britain ‘could return to crippling 1970s strikes’, according to a headline in Britain’s biggest-selling rightwing broadsheet on Saturday. And note how the Daily Telegraph says that like it’s a bad thing.

Johanna Baxter @ LabourList: Employees at Vestas were informed of the proposed loss of 525 jobs on the Isle of Wight and 100 jobs in Southampton on the 30th April.

Alex Smith @ LabourList: I have written the following letter, which I will send to Ed Miliband and Peter Mandelson, the Secretaries of State for Climate Change and Business resp