The Communications Union Reviews 50

Honestly blown away by the kindness and caring nature of this union. I joined just as a precaution after experiencing some issues with my employer during pregnancy and did not anticipate how extremely useful and helpful it turned out to be. They offer legal support and have such genuinely caring volunteers that it has truly melted my heart and made me want to help them somehow in return by volunteering myself in future!

TLDR; you never know when your employer is going to take a swing at you and I'm glad I was a member of this union beforehand...

I joined UTAW (which is part of the CWU) a few years ago and it's one of the best decision I ever made. It's a community of like minded individuals who want workers to stop getting such a raw deal at work who don't just talk about it. UTAW teaches you how to actually do something about it.

They develop our ability to advovate for ourselves as a collective (and to a lesser but still important degree as individuals) by providing activist training, rep support when an issue in an unrecognisied workplace arises and that all important sense of comraderie.

They have a union representative in Edinburgh that is a bully and ended my career in Royal Mail by y
Using WhatsApp to fix statements

Don't trust this person

I joined UTAW (a branch of the CWU) over 2 years ago. I had never been a member of a trade union before. Since then I decided to go along to some of the free training they provide.. one thing led to another and I became very involved in helping grow a union within my own work place (a tech company).
The organisers at UTAW helped and supported me. From there I have learnt loads, skilled up, supported other members and understood the difference between unions as "servicing" i.e. the disempowering idea they are a fee you pay for service vs unions as they should be - workers, helping each other take on big fights and win across the industry. Their reps are mostly volunteers giving up their free time, to help other members out of solidarity.
CWU were fundamental in creating the new Employment Rights Act which has changed the world of work for everyone in the UK. UTAW also won £8000 per worker at Mitie recently in a pay campaign there.
No regrets joining. Love the direction the grassroots, member led branch of the CWU is heading in. Sad to see so many negative reviews - but if people don't like it, get involved and change it!

Im placed in the UTAW branch and it’s been great. They have a thorough programme of training and it’s been useful to connect with other tech workers across the country

As a rank and file member, I joined CWU when UTAW was formed and became a branch. I have always believed I, and all workers, should be part of a trade union, but the tech industry has historically lacked them.

I was a member of another union previously and my experience was nothing but pay my dues and get called up now and then with offers for life insurance.

With UTAW-CWU it has been completely different: there are monthly online branch meetings to which all members are invited, an active Discord for discussion and mutual support, and I was able to get training to act as a rep within a year of joining. This training has been very useful and I now know much more about workers rights and how to enforce them - I've been able to help other workers and am confident I can deal with any future situations that face me.

The UTAW branch has grown rapidly and is extremely active. There are campaigns to organise unions in many tech companies. In some, there have been successful campaigns for recognition, and pay rises following on from that. Anyone who wants an active union in their workplace has the option of attending several training sessions each weak to learn how to make it happen. If you're a tech worker who wants a union that's about building power, rather than offering services, this is the one to join.

Finally, it's a little odd to "review" my union. It's not a company offering a service, but a collective effort of which I am part. But I give that effort a 5 star rating!

This union is an absolute embarrassment, coming in and talking lies to employees then denying when they get called out on it.

Also never call me a “Comrade Bestie” 🤣 shambles.

My experience with the Communication Workers Union (UTAW) has been extremely disappointing. From the outset, the support has been far from helpful. Representatives don’t seem to know what they’re doing, despite the company claiming they receive “high levels of training”.

Basic support… the kind you’d expect a union to provide, just hasn’t been there. I was given false promises and reassurances that things would be handled, but nothing meaningful ever materialised. When you join a union, you expect them to have your back. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been my experience at all.

There also seems to be a tendency to claim the wins of other unions when it suits, but not to recognise or take accountability for mistakes when things go wrong. That imbalance says a lot.

P.S. If you’re going to campaign for people to join the union, at least have the decency to spell things correctly on your posters and actually have answers for those expressing genuine curiosity, rather than responding defensively. 🫠

Terrible union. Corrupt and only in it for themselves not their members

I had a tribunal arranged but didn’t get that far purely down to an extremely dishonest Union Rep. When he forwarded my documentation to the union legal team for them to consider he decided to leave some important documents out and even invented a damaging introductory statement which alone gave me no chance. I made this known to all parties including the head of CWU Policy at the time (2 years ago). Not surprisingly none of them had the balls to reply so the CWU still to this day have a ‘bent’ rep working for them and don’t seem to be bothered one bit. I paid into the CWU for 16 years and all I got for it is garbage representation and false statements made against me to help the opposition (which included another CWU rep)! I would tell any new postie who is considering paying subs to CWU to not bother and keep their money as they will not do their job when needed. By the way, although I am settled in a new career now I will have no hesitation in talking about my disgusting experience with any CWU person. I have nothing to hide but they surely do.

I have chosen not to join this union but they are negotiating my pay rise at Wincanton Screwfix, this situation has been ongoing since March 2025 and should have been implemented in April 2025, as of January 2026, not one offer has been balloted by the membership and the communication with the workforce has been appalling, with more interest in union recruitment, the workforce morale as you would expect is rock bottom, with massive detriment to production, very,very poor communication for the communications union.

Appalling union. Sold us out in 2023. Ward and Fury should be long gone but on their huge salaries they won’t. Don’t waste your money on subs you get nothing in return.

Do NOT waste your money joining this union. Absolutely useless. Especially the South Yorkshire branch. I echo almost every comment on here. I contacted them after being a paid member for over 5 years as I had a dispute about returning to work after maternity leave and being discriminated against. They NEVER answered the phone, no matter what time of the day you called. Even if you left a voicemail it was 50/50 if they’d get back to you. They gave me no support or advice about my issue. They didn’t challenge my employer when they gave me a very unreasonable outcome to my issue. After my initial meeting with my employer, we were supposed to be in contact about next steps, and the union member started reading all of my text messages and ignoring them! They’re very clearly out of their depth and it seems like they only have 1 or 2 people working there. Ridiculous. I cancelled my membership via email with an explanation as to why, and they didn’t even acknowledge my reasoning or apologise. Bizarre. Fight your own corner because they definitely won’t.

Do not bother joining this union, they are useless. If you find yourself in need of them at a tribunal don't expect to win.
You will find your case badly mishandled and will stand no chance of winning as long as they represent you. Their legal department cannot even be bothered to respond to emails.

I resigned from Royal Mail after 36 years service just after the strike action and I want to make this clear it was not because of The not fit for purpose Royal Mail it was wholly because of the CWU they are lead by people only interested in their future and nice big pensions they are a absolute disgrace they stabbed us all in the back to maintain themselves.

We should all belong to a union, we should all be supported and have our voices heard. The CWU has allowed our rights to be destroyed and cost members £1000s in post redundancy pay that the union should have protected. We have been so let down by the CWU. Pick a different union

This union is terrible they are all for the management do nor waste your money on subs expect you to vote on strike action but no pay for strike so where do your subs go in the pocket of the people st the top who stand by different pay rates for same jobs ask for accounts where is mo ey going don't even get a pen or diary

Do not waste your money the reps work for the employer. They refuse to come represent you in meetings when managers are their friends. Jokers

Don’t waste your money! If I’d of known how useless this union was I would have found a solicitor of my own before my tribunal!
I’ve constantly chased the branch, area, regional and the chair!
I’ve now been told that head office legal apparently lost all the emails from the beginning of March!
I’m having to pull out of my tribunal because of the time frame left!!

Lincolnshire DO.............No wonder the ex area CWU Rep never returned calls/texts or emails to the then in-house rep, when members were in their hour of need. Managers as mates that is how. Now the said ex CWU area rep is a manage himself at the very branch he once laughingly "supported". Can you honestly believe that? I can, it all makes perfect sense now. So, now we have the in-house rep, sub rep and ex area rep now cuddly managers bed mates. Still unwilling to help members even more now. How do you all sleep at night taking members monies, whilst looking them all in the face and offering double standards by return? Pathetic.