| Full name | Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union |
|---|---|
| Founded | July 1968 |
| Date dissolved | 1995 |
| AEEU | |
| Members | 425,000 (1970s) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Affiliation | TUC |
| Key people | Frank Chapple, Eric Hammond, Jock Byrne, Tony Dobbins, Ken Jackson, Derek Simpson |
| Office location | London, England, UK |
| Now part of Amicus | |
The Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union, known as the EETPU was a British trade union formed in 1968 as a union for electricians.
Contents |
The union started as the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) which was formed in 1889 and what became the Plumbing Trades Union (PTU) which was formed in 1865. The ETU came from the merger of the Union of Electrical Operatives, formed 1868, and the Amalgamated Society of Telegraph and Telephone Construction Men. The PTU started out as the United Operative Plumbers' Association of Great Britain and Ireland, which became the United Operative Plumbers' and Domestic Engineers' Association of Great Britain and Ireland in 1911, then the Plumbers, Glaziers and Domestic Engineers' Union in 1931, before becoming the PTU in 1946. In June 1961, the ETU was taken to court for "conspiracy to defraud" by the undemocratic union leadership.
After its leader Jock Byrne suffered a stroke, Frank Chapple became the union's leader in 1966. Chapple espoused free-market thinking, which was unusual for a union leader, and aimed to rid his union of communists; his former union - the ETU had been run by communists. He was a "reluctant loyalist" to the Labour Party. The union went on to advocate nuclear power, privatisation of state-owned industries and membership of the European Union.
In July 1968, the ETU merged with the PTU to form the Electrical, Electronic & Telecommunications Union & Plumbing Trades Union, which became the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications & Plumbing Union in 1973. In the early 1970s, electricity was in steep demand, as there were many national power cuts caused by coal miners going on strike.
In September 1982, Chapple became leader of the TUC and was succeeded by Eric Hammond in 1984. Chapple was elevated to the House of Lords as Lord Chapple of Hoxton in 1985.
The union wrote its own rule book when it came to making deals with companies, and often stuck two fingers up at the TUC. It was expelled from the TUC for violating the Bridlington Agreement which stops unions from poaching members from other TUC unions. The EETPU had developed a policy of signing single union agreements in companies where it had few members. In 1987, the TUC asked the EETPU to retract from these agreements at Yuasa (a Japanese battery company), Thorn-EMI and Orion (a Japanese electronics company). The EETPU refused and its 225,000 workers were expelled, which was a relief and revenge for some more left-wing unions.
Once separate from the TUC, communist sections of the union re-emerged in an effort to change the policies of the union.
The union merged with the AEU to become the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union (AEEU) in May 1992, so the electricians were now part of the TUC. The AEEU was led by Ken Jackson, who belonged to the EETPU. The AEEU merged with the Manufacturing, Science and Finance (MSF) to become Amicus in 2001. Amicus, the largest private sector union with 1.2m workers, has been led by Derek Simpson since June 2002. Tony Dubbins, of the NGA in the Wapping dispute, became Joint Deputy General Secretary in 2004.
Light & Liberty: A history of the EETPU by John Lloyd. ISBN 0-297-79662-3