Unite - Britain's biggest union
Our History The Transport and General Workers Union was founded in 1922. This proud history is the bedrock on which Unite is built. |
The amalgamation in 1922
The Transport and General Workers' Union was formed by 14 small trade unions in the dock, road transport and inland waterway industries coming together to create one big union to serve 350,000 workers.The T&G was formed on 1 January 1922, with 350,000 members from 14 unions, including dockers, stevedores, lightermen, factory workers,transport workers and clerks. The union's first general secretary - and the architect of the amalgamation - was Ernest Bevin.
You can find out more about the history of the T&G and unions more generally at the TUC's history website www.unionhistory.info
TGWU General Secretaries
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Ernest Bevin 1922-1945 | Arthur Deakin 1945-1955 | Jock Tiffin 1955 | Frank Cousins 1956 - 1969 | Jack Jones 1969 - 1978 |
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Moss Evans 1978 - 1985 | Ron Todd 1985 - 1992 | Bill Morris 1992 - 2003 | Tony Woodley 2003 - | Unite the Union 2007 |
The modern TGWU
As a new millennium began, trade unions were more than ever aware of what the earliest combinations of workers learned 200 years ago - that only through unity and organisation can the cause of working men and women be advanced.
Employers have created global corporations capable of holding governments, let alone workers, to ransom. Today, more than ever, workers need the strength of a trade union around them.
For the T&G, having members throughout industry and the services has meant growth and stability during industrial struggles and the ups and downs of the economy. It has meant being able to fight on, when others have gone to the wall.
The strength and depth of its organisation means that the T&G is as relevant for the workers of the future - in high-tech industries or the caring services and police service - as it is for lightermen, whose origins lie with the guilds of the Middle Ages.
In 1922 when the T&G was formed, our first President Harry Gosling captured the opportunity that lay before us when he said "Amalgamate - be united in heart, hand and deed and set up an organisation for heroes to fight with."
The T&G made history for the movement then, going on to build one of the most powerful forces for working people this country has ever seen. Now, we are making history once again
Unite is launched
Unite - the union is the two million-strong combination of the Transport and General Workers' Union and Amicus was launched on 1st May 2007.
The joint general secretaries of Unite, Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley (pictured), have pledged that the new union will pour resources into organising non-union members across Britain and Ireland, particularly in sectors with younger workers, and will seek mergers abroad to build a truly global trade union.
Unite will have an annual budget of £15 million for organising - an unprecedented amount in British and Irish trade union history - which will be spent taking on anti-union employers across the economy and organising the thousands of workers of all ages who are not yet members.
Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of Unite said: "Two unions with a proud history but an even brighter future have come together to form one progressive, organising, fighting back industrial giant. Unite will be focused above all on winning for our members in the workplace and taking trade unionism to the millions who need it."
Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of Unite, said: "Unite is uniquely placed to build an international trade union, capable of protecting working people of all ages from exploitation, whoever they work for.
"Since 2004 amicus recruited a quarter of a million new members. We intend to build on this significantly in our new union, Unite. We aim to offer the benefits of membership of a strong and internationally connected union to working people in every workplace in the UK and Ireland."
Unite - Britain's biggest union and the new choice for Derbyshire Police Staff |