Labour Research April 2004

Union news

Unions flock to Amicus

Skilled and professional union Amicus looks set to become the TUC's largest affiliate after finance union Unifi representatives agreed to ballot the union's 147,000 members on transferring its engagements to the union.

Unifi will recommend members to vote "yes" and, if they do, the merger will go ahead this July.

The move came after members of the non-TUC Anchor Group Staff Association voted by 97% in favour of transferring its engagements to Amicus. The move is significant because Anchor is the largest UK housing association with over 9,000 staff.

And members of the GPMU print and media union are to be balloted over a merger with Amicus. If they go ahead, Amicus will become the largest UK union with a membership of nearly 1.38 million.