A Short History of UNITE the Union
March 2020
Unite is dedicated to serving the best interests of its members, protecting the rights of workers and promoting equality and diversity in the workplace. Unite negotiates with employers and government to achieve these aims.
Below is a short history of how Unite came into being along.
1st MAY 2007 Unite the Union, usually shortened to Unite, was created on 1 May 2007, by the merger of 2 other unions – Amicus and the Transport and General Workers’ Union (TGWU or T&G).
Today with just under 1.3 million members, Unite is the largest trade union in the UK, the second largest being UNISON.
JULY 2008 Unite signed an agreement to merge with the United Steelworkers in July 2008 to form a new international union called Workers Uniting. This represents over 3 million members in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland who work in virtually every sector of the global economy, including manufacturing, service, mining and transportation. Unite retains its separate identity in the United Kingdom.
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Amicus (which is Latin for “friend” or “comrade”) was the UK’s second-largest trade union, and the largest private sector union. It was formed in 2001 by the merger of Manufacturing, Science and Finance and the AEEU (Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union), and two smaller unions, UNIFI and the GPMU. Amicus also organised in both parts of Ireland and was affiliated to the Trades Union Congress, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the Scottish Trades Union Congress.
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The Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU or T&G) was one of the largest general trade unions in the UK. In Ireland it was known as the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union (ATGWU). The T&G had 900,000 members (and was once the largest trade union in the world). It was founded in 1922, and its first general secretary was Ernie Bevin.
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MAY 2008 The Executive Council of Unite As part of the process to merge the T&G and Amicus, a Joint Executive Council (formed of the executives of both these unions) took office on the vesting day. In March 2008, a new Executive Council for the expanded Union was elected. This took office on 1st May 2008 having a three-year term. The Executive Council was tasked with putting a new Unite rulebook to a postal ballot of members during July 2008.
The Unite special Rules Conference in 2010 agreed a rule change for a formula of how seats were to be allocated on the Unite Executive Council.
The first reduced unified Unite Executive Council was elected in 2011.
OCT 2008 Election for Joint General Secretary In October 2008 the Executive Council of Unite announced that there would be an election for the General Secretary (Amicus section). This election was for a fixed term until December 2010. Derek Simpson was elected as General Secretary (Amicus section).
Tony Woodley had been elected on 30 May 2003 to succeed Bill Morris as General Secretary of the TGWU. Tony served as the other Joint-General Secretary (TGWU section) of Unite.
DEC 2010 Election of Unite General Secretary Following the announcement by Derek Simpson & Tony Woodley that they were to retire in December 2010, Len McCluskey was duly elected by members as the first single General Secretary of Unite starting on 1st January 2011.
Below is a short biography of our current General Secretary, Len McCluskey.
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Len McCluskey was born in Liverpool on 23 July 1950. His father, after whom he was named, was a painter-decorator and his mother, Peggy, politically inspired her son. As a young adult, he spent 11 years working in the Liverpool Docks for the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board.
Len joined the T&G in 1968 and became a shop steward for the union the following year. He was involved in organising the white-collar staff in the Liverpool docks among whom previously there had been an absence of trade union organisation. After joining the Labour Party in 1970, he became an officer of the T&G in Merseyside in 1979 and was its campaign organiser throughout the 1980s.
Len McCluskey was elected as the National Secretary of the T&G General Workers group in 1990 and moved to London to work in the union's national HQ.
In 2004, he became the T&G’s national organiser for the service industries. In 2007, he was appointed as the Assistant General Secretary for Industrial Strategy of Unite.
Len was elected as the general secretary of Unite in 2010 and was re-elected to this post in 2013 and 2017.
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Throughout their short history Unite and other trade unions have been a force for good in society.
No other organisations on earth have done more to bring about a fairer and more equitable deal for ordinary working people than trade unions, but don’t just take my word for it…
Martin Luther-King 1929 – 1968
Solidarity and use the poster below to spread the union word around your workplace,
Brian Madican
Jan 2020
