Amicus launches Labour membership campaign

Amicus, the 1.2 million-member manufacturing, technical and finance union, is to campaign to get more of its members signed up to the Labour Party to help increase the union's political influence.

General secretary Derek Simpson announced the campaign in a speech to his union officers last month. He said: "In this way we can maximise our members' influence in Electoral College and future policy-making procedures."

Simpson set out the union's current priorities for action, one of which is to try to complete its planned merger with the T&G and GMB general unions by 2007, so that the union can maximise its power and influence on behalf of working people.

Simpson said that the impending Labour leadership contest had led prominent Party figures to approach him for advice on how to position themselves to get maximum support from Amicus members. Simpson said: "They are right to do this; the new union will represent 2.6 million members and will carry influence with their families too."

He told officers that the major themes concerning Amicus members were jobs and their insecurity about their income in work and in retirement.

"The insecurity our members feel is imposed on them by weak politicians who do the bidding of giant global corporations," he said.

He said the merger was key because "one union with financial and intellectual resources to organise and educate millions of people not currently protected by a union would have serious power" both industrially and politically.