Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
|
| Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians | |
| Founded | 1971 |
|---|---|
| Members | 120,000 |
| Country | United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland |
| Affiliation | TUC, STUC, BWI |
| Key people | Alan Ritchie, general secretary John Thompson, president |
| Office location | London, England |
| Website | www.ucatt.org.uk |
The Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians (UCATT) is a British and Irish trade union which represents, as of 2006, 120,000 workers in construction and allied trades.
UCATT was formed in 1971 through the merger of the Amalgamated Union of Building Trade Workers (AUBTW), the Association of Building Technicians and the Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers and Decorators, which had itself been founded the previous year from a merger of the Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers (ASW) and the Amalgamated Society of Painters and Decorators (ASPD)
The merged union was initially known as the Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers, Painters and Builders, but changed its name later in the year.
In 1972, shortly after its formation, UCATT was involved in a major industrial dispute. Building workers struck for a minimum wage of £30 a week, in a 13-week long stoppage. Several months after the strike, two building workers, Ricky Tomlinson and Des Warren (the "Shrewsbury Two)" were found guilty of common law conspiracy as a result of their picketing activities and were jailed at Shrewsbury Crown Court. Following a rule-change in 1995, UCATT has a lay Executive Council. Its General Secretary is Alan Ritchie. It is affiliated to the Trades Union Congress and the Labour Party, as well as to the Building and Wood Workers' International and the European Federation of Building and Wood Workers.
