BBC News Online
Three branches of Britain's biggest rail union are attempting to switch their allegiance from Labour to Tommy Sheridan's Scottish Socialist Party.
The executive committee of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union will be asked to endorse the move next week.
The branches are in Glasgow, Edinburgh and in Motherwell and Wishaw - First Minister Jack McConnell's constituency.

The Guardian: Rail union cuts Labour funding

The Times: Labour link with rail union may be broken

THE Labour Party is facing a breach with one of its founding trade unions after a move by three branches of the left-wing Rail, Maritime and Transport Union to support the militant Scottish Socialist Party.

The branches, in Motherwell and Wishaw, Glasgow, and Edinburgh, have applied to a meeting next month of the RMT national executive to disaffiliate from Labour and back the SSP. The RMT is Britain’s biggest rail union.

Labour Party sources in Scotland said last night that if the move is agreed by RMT leaders it would mean that the whole union would be regarded as having disaffiliated from Labour — the first such move by a trade union in decades.