The union's" Prime Mate in the Lodge Unions do seem to be the masters of the Gillard Government - and what unions they are...: In a new argument over how Ms Gillard held her position, caucus members said that unions had applied pressure to some MPs to reject Mr Rudd, even though that meant losing a chance to hold their seats at the September 14 election. The accusation centres on cases where MPs told the Rudd camp that they would have to check with their unions before deciding whether to abandon Ms Gillard. "She bought the leadership by giving the unions what they wanted, and that is a corrupt process," said one of Mr Rudd's supporters. Another said that the outcome continued Ms Gillard's debt to unions that have backed her consistently over recent years... Unions blamed for influencing the result include the Australian Workers Union, Transport Workers Union and Health Services Union. AWU national secretary Paul Howes hit back at the claim by insisting he made no calls about the leadership to MPs last Thursday. It was only last month that AWU president Bill Ludwig dangled Gillard as his prize catch: