Billy Hayes: Cutting union links 'won't solve problems' Billy Hayes, the general secretary of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), said that he did not think that the reform was a good idea. He said that the move would be "moving more and more ordinary people away from politics." He stressed that the point that he wanted to make was that "the political class in this country need an injection of ordinary people" and that "steps like this don't do anything to solve the problems in this country."