LONDON (AP) - Britain's biggest rail union said Monday it would cut funding to Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labor Party and withdraw financial support from several key Labor lawmakers to protest the government's transport policies.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) said it would cut its contribution to the party from 112,000 pounds (dlrs 168,000) to 20,000 pounds (dlrs 30,000) a year.
Speaking at the union's annual conference in Southport, northern England, general secretary Bob Crow said the government had failed to back RMT campaigns, including the re-nationalization of Britain's dilapidated railways.
He said Blair's government, which came to power in 1997, had betrayed workers by policies including the part-privatization of London's subway system, the London Underground.
"We are now five years into a New Labor administration who are not delivering on behalf of working people," said Crow.
"They now have to deliver the goods. This decision will be a shock to the Labor Party but it cannot accept our money week in, week out unless it is prepared to do something for us," he added.
Labor was traditionally the party of Britain's working class, receiving huge financial donations from the trade union movement.
However, since the mid-1990s and particularly under Blair's stewardship, the party, christened New Labor, has moved from the left of the political spectrum to The RMT also decided to switch financial support from 13 Labor lawmakers, including Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, to left-wingers in the party who support union policies.
The Labor Party said it was making no immediate comment about the decision.
But Labor lawmaker Tony Wright said similar action by other unions would be "the path that ends in severing the link between the trade unions and Labor Party," Wright said.