Amicus and T&G merger creates Britain’s biggest union

Reporter’s Guide in association with Unite the Union

On 1 May this year Unite, the UK’s largest trade union, was born.

Created through the merger of Amicus and the Transport and General Workers Union (T&G), Unite has two million members.

The new union represents workers in the public and private sectors and in almost every industry and profession; it is the dominant union in manufacturing, energy, transport, finance, food and agriculture. It also represents members working in the National Health Service, in education, in local authorities, government departments and in the voluntary sector.

Whatever someone’s job or employer, Unite is dedicated to improving its’ members standards of living and the quality of their working lives. Thanks to Unite’s unique structure, individual member’s needs and professional and sector priorities are protected and supported by a powerful campaigning organisation bound by collective responsibility.

With a network of more than 500 salaried officers and thousands of trained workplace representatives, Unite is instrumental in improving working practices and training and development initiatives for thousands of UK workers.

Committed to growth, Unite has pledged to prioritise organising non-unionised workplaces and to reach out to the thousands of workers who are not in a trade union. With a membership income of £150m a year, Unite is dedicating £15m every year just to recruiting new members, concentrating on sectors such as logistics and the aviation industry.

As a bigger, stronger trade union, Unite is also looking ahead to the

creation of global trade unions and is already entering partnerships with international trade unions with a view to building a federal structure or a single global trade union within the next decade.

With the largest research department of any UK trade union, Unite is a source of expert and authoritative advice for employees and employers alike on a range of areas, from employment legislation to industrial, science and health policy.

It also has a 30 strong communications and campaigns team which has been successful in pushing issues such as the plight of manufacturing, and the pensions and housing crises to the top of the media agenda. It has also embraced new media to engage and involve with its members, producing pod-casts, union television, email newsletters and two award winning publications.

Above all, Unite is politically influential. Both Amicus and the T&G have strong records in spearheading government action and, as the largest Labour Party trade union affiliate with more than 100 MPs and the largest group of MEPs, Unite has at its disposal an important lobby in both Whitehall and Brussels.

If you’re interested in finding out more about Unite, visit the website www.unitetheunion.com