Amicus/T&G merger may lead to global union

Manufacturing News, Source : TheManufacturer.com
Published : 08 Mar 2007 16:49

In a move that may herald a single global trade union, manufacturing workers heard today they are to have a new union from May.

Members of Amicus and T&G voted in favour of merger to create Britain and Ireland's biggest trade union with around two million members.

In the ballot to approve the creation of the as yet unnamed new union, the

T&G gave the go-ahead by 86.4 per cent for merger and Amicus members voted 70.1 per cent for merger, although both results were achieved on a modest 27 per cent turnout.

The new union will come into being on May 1 and cover manufacturing workers and those in the transport, aviation, food and farming, and financial sectors as well as others in public services and the voluntary sector.

T & G leader Tony Woodley said the new union would be a progressive, organising, and fighting-back industrial giant. Amicus’ Derek Simpson said: "The new union will be the greatest campaigning force on behalf of ordinary people that has ever existed. It is a precursor to the creation of a single global trade union movement capable of challenging the might of multinationals who seek to play workforces and governments off against each other to reduce jobs and hard won pay and conditions."

Woodley and Simpson will serve as Joint General Secretaries of the new union until a sole General Secretary is elected by members in 2010.

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