THE CASE FOR MERGERS OR SUPER-UNIONS HAS HISTORY ON IT'S SIDE
submitted by George Anthony

Trade unionism began when men and women organised to resist the employers drive for profit.

Robin Page Arnot’s four volumes on the History of the Miners, traces how an industry that was key to the economy declined both in membership and in the unions that represented them, over a period of 267 years. He begins, “a little after 1200, does the record of coal-working begin with the monks of Newbattle in the Lothians.” and goes on to record the first mining trade unionism in the Annals of Bristol by John Latimer who wrote, “A violent rising of the Kingswood colliers occurred early in October 1738”, and a strike in 1765 on the Tyne and Wear pointed to the beginnings of collective action. His earliest specific reference to a trade union is of the “Wakefield Coal Miners Society,” established between 1824 and 1825. (Volume 1 Pages 19-27-34). He writes that in 1910 there were 84 unions in coal-mining and quarrying within the Miners Federation of Great Britain, which had been formed earlier in November 1889. (Volume 1 Page 371). However the number of miners in 1946 was 690,000, the lowest figure for fifty years. (Volume 4 Page 204).
Steve Kemp, NUM General Secretary, wrote in the Morning Star of September 13th 2005; that in 1984 there were 186 pits with 170,00 miners, but now reduced to 8 pits employing 4,000 miners.

George Tate and A.L Morton also recorded the earliest days of trade unionism, of the “London Hatters" may have dated from 1667.….the craft club is already beginning to grow into the craft union. Among other trades in which such organizations flourished were the tailors, millwrights, joiners and printers. Liverpool shipwrights and Sheffield cutlers were among the best organised groups, and in 1790 the Sheffield Iris printed a typical employers complaint about the scissor-grinders and other workmen who have entered into unlawful combinations to raise the price of labour.” The British Labour Movement (Page 19).

A visit to the Science Museum in West Kensington will confirm how the growth of technology alone, reduced engineering workers to a fraction of those recorded by J.B Jeffreys in The Story of the Engineers. E.P Thompson’s Making of the English Working Class, tells a similar story of extinction of the hand loom weavers and their unions. My own experience in the Amalgamated Engineering Union, London (North) District, updates the decline. In 1956 there were 30,000 workers in the factories it covered; now such numbers of members, workplaces and organisation no longer exist. The inevitable process of separate trade union membership decline and merger continues.

The Labour Research of October 2004 reported a drop of 220 unions in 1999 to 192 in 2003, as a result of smaller unions merging; mainly with Amicus.

This proposed Amicus, TGWU and GMB merger however has a new concept, not one of merger because of contraction, but of potential growth against the forces of globalisation in Europe and internationally.

Such a concept is not new, the WFTU, formed as part of the post war settlement, combining unions in the United Kingdom, Europe and in America. The case for mergers, or Super-unions, has history on its side It also had a Colonial Committee which reached out to the workers in the colonial possessions of the Imperialist countries. It lasted until 1948, brought down by the Truman Doctrine, aided and abetted by the TUC and guided by the Foreign Office.

In a world where 800 million live on less than a dollar a day, there is an urgent need for a union that can be structured to combat low wages, which are as much a threat to the industrialised countries through loss of jobs, as they are to the workers suffering such poverty.

Interviewed in the Morning Star of 14th September 2005, Derek Simpson, General Secretary of Amicus, put it like this, “The world of work has changed to what’s become known as rampant globalisation…It’s time that unions need to think about forming international relations.”

Whilst The case for mergers, or super-unions, has history on its side, unfortunately the King Canute like argument against the merger finds an echo in some quarters.

Their first objection is that the membership in a large union cannot identify with an unwieldy and bureaucratic leadership. Summarised by “smaller is better”.
The second objection is that the merger will undermine the TUC.

The first objection is best answered by having a democratic and accountable structure. I can think of no better example than the old AEU, with its branches for membership participation, debate and election to local Trades Councils, local Labour Parties and District Committees, as well as involvement in the local community. Shop Stewards Committeeshad the opportunity to have their views represented through quartely meetings and were also represented on District Committees. District Committees were represented on Regional Committees. They in turn elected a National Committee for policy making. Elections were usually annual.

The TGWU has a similar structure, based on Trade groups and branch based Regions, although unlike the AEU, has a rank and file Executive (Amicus also has a rank and file executive) with three national officers elected by ballot, every five years. The rest of the full time officers selected by an Executive appointed panel, elected every two years. The former draughtsman‘s union TASS had a similar policy, but their selection panel was elected by an Annual conference. The 2005 Amicus Rules Conference decide that all future full time officers would be elected by ballot.

On the second objection, the TUC convened in 1868 under the threat of criminalising trade unionism, (The Webbs, History of Trade Unionism Page 264), was never structured for action. This weakness of the TUC General Council was confirmed when it failed expectations in the General Strike of 1926.
The TUC General Secretary, Brendan Barber, however, has given the merger a guarded welcome and emphasised, quite rightly, a continuing role for the TUC.

As Jeremy Waddington, writing in the Labour Research of October 2004, points out, “These developments continue a gradual trend that has been taking place over the last three decades……The point remains, however, that a future merger involving any two of AMICUS, the GMB and the TGWU would have a marked impact on trade union structural development”.

Such an impact will be made by:

• the streamlining of administration,
• a decisive vote at the TUC and Labour Party conference
• an influence on the Parliamentary panel involving some 250 Labour MPs.

Furthermore through disputes and support for them, this new Super-union of 2.6 million members will be a major force for working people‘s wages and conditions, just as the miners were in the 60s and 70s, and well equipped to face the challenge of globalisation in this 21st century.