The Communications Union Reviews 

i would give zero stars if i could. Take your subscription each month, take ages to respond and when they do zero apology. No representation complete scam and waste of time, wish i had read the review. Ensure you read the reviews before joining.

I wanted a rep to come with me to a probation meeting I send the branch rep 5 emails from 2 different emails purely because ni didn’t think my gmail wasn’t sending them. All I was getting back was the same email, you could see what they were doing copying and paste..

I ended up going to it myself though I’m not behind the door I’m 67 now over the years I’ve been in different positions in the union all the way up to lead rep and a branch secretary I’ve never seen anything like this before. As I wasn’t getting any response I contacted the regional officer and explained to him what was going on and holding posts myself how the lack of care and lack of communication was not acceptable, I had had one more attempt before I sent this in though and I told them what I was going to do and that did get a response, the lead rep said I’ve got 2 reps off sick and in busy, my reply was, I’m going to report you for the failure you have shown, I’ve paid my subs and I don’t want any excuses now this is not the way a rep or lead rep should have handed it, this person said you should have waited I told them I have enough experience to do it myself, and I don’t need you to raise a greevance I’m capable of doing one myself, just get me a FTO fur the next part and I raised a complaint.

Then a few weeks k\later I get a reply from the FTOwhat got me they were saying that they explained why they did have any reps, which wasn’t acceptable to be honest they failed me. The next thing was I get a email from this lead rep saying they had 40 years experience, I read it but I replied ah but I’ve got all the emails I’ve sent you and the copy and pasted ones you send back apart from the last one said that I had not contacted them.

The next thing I got was an email from my breach sec saying they would deal with me and then blow me that person went off on maternity leave I’m still trying to to find who is going to rep me so now I’ve contaed the head office, now if I get dismissed I’ll be taking this a lot higher in the union till I do get an answer from someone and we will see what happens next. You can’t give zero stars on here it’s odd you pay your subs and get nothing nin return just excuses

Don’t waste your money or time

If I could give zero stars then I would , the CWU aren’t for their people they are for the establishment . I was going through some issues outside of work which had no involvement of work whatsoever and I had a CWU rep find out about it .

What did he do? , we went to higher up management and essentially grassed me up and landed me in tonnes of stress to the point that I only just kept my job .

To make things worse , this union rep never called me up first to even ask what the score was .

So I’ve recently cancelled my membership (despite paying into it for the last 4-5 years) and put a complaint in .

Their response (in short) “because you aren’t a paying member of the union no more under ‘rule 14’ which states you must be a paying member, we cannot look into this complaint.

Despite me explaining that I was a paying member when all this was going on and have been for years , they simply copped out with a lame excuse .

This union rep that caused me all this unnecessary stress was a guy called Robert, from the north west super hub (people reading this will know exactly who he is) so I’d advise anybody that thinks this guy is on your side …. He isn’t …. And neither is the union … best thing to do is leave this union and find your own because these guys follow the money .

I joined the CWU about 6 months ago, and have been trying to contact them for 5 months to get some support.

I've made various calls which just ring out, and sent a handful of emails which are left ignored.

I'd recommend looking at another union, because when you need help, you want someone that's actually going to show up.

They have union representation who is high up in Scotland that helped to end my career in Royal Mail by using WhatsApp to fix statements and getting paid overtime to agree to it this is bullying

It is impossible to get hold of them in the Leeds area, I’ve tried on numerous occasions by phone and email with no response or return of call.

Even when I did speak to 1 lady she was very dismissive and told me there was nothing she could do for me regarding bullying in the work place.

I have since emailed them to cancel my membership and I never get a response so I’m having to go through payroll.

Don’t bother, you are better sorting it yourself without these who are more focused on pushing a political ideology over supporting its members who pay and need them.

Helped me out massively when I got made redundant. Union dues are very low, and well worth paying for just in case you ever need help.

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.

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.