| Full name | Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1971 |
| Members | 127,433 |
| Country | United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland |
| Affiliation | TUC, ICTU, STUC, BWI, CSEU, Labour Party[1] |
| 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 December 2009, 127,433 workers in construction and allied trades[2], an increase of nearly 17,000 since 2003[3].
UCATT was formed in 1971 following 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. Its first General Secretary was Sir George Smith, formerly General Secretary of the ASW, who was directly elected by the membership. Its Executive at the time incorporated paid officials who had been selected by an electoral process within the industry.
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In 1972, shortly after its formation, UCATT along with the GMWU, and TGWU, two sister unions involved in construction and civil engineering, was involved in a major national joint industrial dispute. Building workers all over the country went on strike, demanding a minimum wage of £30 a week, along with a campaign to abolish the 'Lump Labour Scheme', which institutionalised casual cash - paid, daily labour. The strike took the form of a 13-week long stoppage which affected many major sites, effectively bringing the industry to the table.
Several months after the strike, at a time when some of the strikers' aims had been largely settled, a number of building workers were investigated for acts of sabotage and vandalism during the dispute, of these a number were party to high profile police investigation, mainly arising from pressure by major contractors, and politicians anxious to suppress a grass roots working movement, which, for the first time ever, demonstrated that the building industry could be organised by trade unions where the cause was just. Two building workers, Ricky Tomlinson a TGWU Plasterer and strike leader, and Des Warren of UCATT, a steel fixer, and leading lay official, became known as (the "Shrewsbury Two)" and were found guilty of common law conspiracy as a result of their picketing activities. Both were jailed at Shrewsbury Crown Court.
The whole of the trade union movement saw common cause with the Shrewsbury strikers, and it was widely felt that the trial and prosecution had been unsafe, based more upon industrial and political revenge from the Heath Government, than sound principle. Statements from unsafe sources had been taken by biased police officials working under the direction of a hostile government.
In the intervening years, Des Warren developed serious health problems as a result of overdoses of medication whilst in solitary, while his fellow campaigner, Ricky Tomlinson went on to become a successful entertainer, who along with others took their case to the TUC Conference in 1975, to little success.
In 2004, Des Warren died without the pardon that various activists and trade unionists had campaigned for ever since.
After Warren's death, a number of key safety campaigners, unions, and Warren's own family gathered to commemorate him in Liverpool, the following excerpts were from a web site in his memory:
At the beginning of the 1970s, the poor safety record and low wages was creating anger amongst unionised workers in the construction industry. Non-unionised workers were subjected to a system known as ‘the lump’ – cash-only payment in a lump sum, without any security or employment rights. The Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians (UCATT) proposed a ‘builder’s charter’ – guaranteeing a 35-hour week, a wage of £1 an hour, improved safety and pensions.
The building industry – led by companies such as McAlpine's and Laing's – were terrified by this threat to their profits, as were Ted Heath’s Conservative government. Against the background of the Vietnam War and emerging protest movements, the ruling class was worried alternatives to capitalism gaining popularity. In fact Lord McAlpine was treasurer of the Tories, so he was doubly worried!
The unionised workers began to use ‘flying pickets’ as a tactic to win the lump workers around to their cause. Among the leaders were Des Warren (who worked in Ellesmere Port for a time) and Eric (‘Ricky’) Tomlinson (who is now better known for his roles in Brookside and The Royle Family).
On September 6, 1972, coachloads of UCATT and Transport and General Workers Union members from North Wales and Chester went to the market town of Shrewsbury to assist trade union members there, by picketing the sites. At one place they were greeted by the son of one boss brandishing a shotgun, at another site a building company director challenged Des Warren to a fight, but by the end of the day when the men set off for home they felt it hadn't been a bad day's union work, and there had been no trouble with the police.
Six months later – with the conflict between strikers and government intensifying – the authorities took “vicious retribution and recrimination”, in the words of one of today’s speakers. Warren and Tomlinson were arrested in connection with the Shrewsbury events (along with twenty-two others), and charged with unlawful assembly, affray and conspiracy to intimidate. After a bizarre and blatantly unfair trial, they were found guilty of the conspiracy charge by the capitalist state and a middle class jury.
Warren received three years in prison, and Tomlinson got two years. They became known as the ‘Shrewsbury Two’, and a campaign was launched to set them free. But if the trial had been a deliberate conspiracy of the Employers' Federation, government and state, then the campaign saw a conspiracy by leaders of the Labour Party, the TUC and UCATT to limit the threat to the profit system. Workers were told to vote for a Labour government, but when they got one Harold Wilson and James Callaghan refused to cut short Warren’s sentence or launch an inquiry. Callaghan’s government began the attack on workers’ rights that was accelerated by Thatcher and is still supported by Blair, Brown, and almost every politician you are likely to see on the news.
Along with speeches from Mick Abbott (an ex building worker, shop steward and friend of Des) and Dave Ayres (who helps run Des’ trust fund), a video was screened. In it, Des described how he was treated in prison. When he demanded a single cell, went on hunger strike and refused to wear prison clothes, a doctor prescribed some ‘medication’, which Des was eventually persuaded to take for three weeks. He recalled how “within ten minutes I was asleep…it was hazy the first couple of days…my hand used to come to a halt and my words went smaller and smaller”.
During the late 1980s, and early 1990s, UCATT suffered a long debilitating recession, with successive attacks from a hostile Conservative government, which culminated in the union having to go into a long period of management over serious financial deficits from falling membership rolls. UCATT having had tried for many years to sustain cash contributions from members collected on site in the age of increasing technology.
This period of serious decline was co incidental with strong rumours of a merger with various other unions, chief among them the TGWU, and gains being made by GMB.
Throughout the 1980s, a strong joint Sites Movement of regular UCATT, TGWU, GMB, AEEUW, members characterised the construction Unions' work on sites in Major Cities, many of whom had remained crowded, unsafe, and casualised places in need of true reform.
UCATT however, emerged under the new leadership of George Brumwell, its General Secretary in 1992.
George Brumwell, a strong, charismatic leader, put the lean-and-mean UCATT back to work, and by 2001, had largely affected a turn around in the union's fortunes, with a number of cost containing measures such as the closure of a number of local offices and strategic redundancies. This all but eliminated the deficits, and built a new more readily sustainable UCATT which was significantly smaller than before.
The union also found itself running a 'Safety Culture' campaign across the industry, while campaigning for a case for construction and regeneration, which became part of the strategy of the New Labour government following its election victory in 1997.
Following a rule-change in 1995, UCATT has a lay Executive Council. Its most recent General Secretary is Alan Ritchie, formerly the Scottish Regional Secretary was forced to stand down over voting irregularities, George Guy is the Acting General Secretary until the election re-run in October2011. It is affiliated to the Trades Union Congress and the Labour Party, as well as to the Building and Wood Workers' International and the EFBWW, European Federation of Building and Wood Workers.
In 2006, UCATT, T&G, and GMB, the successors to the joint unions of 1972 ran a seven day strike on the construction of Heathrow Terminal 5 in pursuit of £1.00 on bonus, and back pay. The employer was Laing O'Rourke the successor to John Laing Ltd, one of the big employers of 1972. After the dispute was resolved the strikers received 80% of their original aims and substantial back pay.
As representative of the views of site workers, UCATT takes the unions' seat on the government/industry body, the Strategic Forum for Construction.
Alan Ritchie was forced to stand down as General Secretary in March 2011 due to an order by the Certification Officer. The 2009 election was to be treated as 'void and of no effect' and a new election to be run by the 29th July 2011. UCATT appealed the decision of the Certification Officer and lost postphoning the election until later that year. Michael Dooley claimed the election was unfair because less than 50% of UCATT's 130,000 members received ballot papers.[4]. Ritchie is currently under investigation over expenses fraud and has been suspended on full pay pending the invesigation.
Dooley was later dismissed by UCATT and has since been embroiled in a legal dispute over unfair dismissal claims. The re run of the election in due to take place in November 2011, but Ritchie and Dooley have not been found fit to stand and will not be on the ballot paper [5]. Dooley is seeking to challenge the decision.[6]
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