The Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union, known as the EEPTU was a British trade union formed in 1968. It was a union for electricians. It often found itself in unpopular positions with the trade union movement as it chose to work harmoniously with employers rather than in defiance. 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... The Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union (AEEU) was a British trade union. ... Image:TradeUnionsCongress20050108 CopyrightKaihsuTai. ... London (pronounced ) is the capital city of the United Kingdom and the largest city of England (strangely, England has no constitutional existence within the United Kingdom, and therefore cannot be said to have a capital). ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2005 est. ... Amicus is Britains second largest trade union, formed by the merger of MSF (Manufacturing Science and Finance) and the AEEU (Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union) agreed in 2001. ... An electrician is a tradesman specializing in electrical wiring of buildings and related equipment. ...

History

The union started as the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) which was formed in 1889 and what became the Plumbing Trades Union 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. Jock Byrne took over leadership which is when the right-wing ideology of the union gained ground.

Jock Byrne suffered a stroke, which led in 1966, Frank Chapple (August 8th 1921 - October 19th 2004) to become the leader. He 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. In some ways, he was a man ahead of his time: the era of New Labour. He was a reluctant loyalist to the Labour Party. This was just the beginning. The union went on to advocate nuclear power, privatisation of state-owned industries and membership of the European Union. It also co-operated in single union deals with companies - to the smooth the path of employers, and as a result benefitting their union, possibly (or deliberately) at the expense of other unions. A stroke, also known as cerebrovascular accident (CVA),[1] is an acute neurologic injury in which the blood supply to a part of the brain is interrupted. ... A free market is an idealized market, where all economic decisions and actions by individuals regarding transfer of money, goods, and services are voluntary, and are therefore devoid of coercion and theft (some definitions of coercion are inclusive of theft). Colloquially and loosely, a free market economy is an economy... This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ... New Labour is an alternative name of the British political Labour Party. ... The Labour Party has been, since its founding in the early 20th century, the principal political party of the left in the United Kingdom. ... A nuclear power station. ... Privatization (sometimes privatisation, denationalization, or — especially in India — disinvestment) is the process of transferring property, from public ownership to private ownership. ...

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. A power outage is the loss of the electricity supply to an area. ... Wyoming coal mine Coal mining is the mining of coal. ...

In September 1982, Frank Chapple became leader of the TUC. Eric Hammond became leader when Frank left in 1984. Frank Chapple became Lord Chapple of Hoxton in 1985. Eric Hammond was not liked by many unions as he tried to modernise working practices. Hoxton Square. ...

Wapping dispute

The history of the EEPTU would not be complete without this notorious chapter. In this dispute in January 1986, Rupert Murdoch and the editor of the Sunday Times, Andrew Neil, had to find a strategy to implement new computer technology and printing equipment without the whole scheme being blocked by the trades unions of the printers - the National Graphical Association, led by Tony Dubbins. Workers often had to belong to a closed shop to work in printing works, and there were many strikes. Working practices would have to be changed and huge redundancies would be unavoidable, as all the labourious printing and typeface setting found in Fleet Street could be simplified using more reliable and less-troublesome computers. This barely involved printers, certainly no-one was needed to produce the typefaces. Rupert Keith Murdoch AC, KCSG, (born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia on 11 March 1931) is an Australian-American global media executive and is the top shareholder, chairman and managing director of News Corporation, based in New York City. ... The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper distributed in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International which is in turn owned by News Corporation. ... Andrew Ferguson Neil (born May 21, 1949) is a British journalist and broadcaster. ... A closed shop is a business or industrial establishment whose employees are required to be union members or to agree to join the union within a specified time after being hired. ... Fleet Street in 2005 Fleet Street is a famous street in London, England, named after the River Fleet. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

So an alternative to asking the NGA politely if they wanted to change on their terms was the only way to get the whole changeover completed. The NGA were given no hint or consultation of how the whole long-winded process of printing was going to be unceremoniously ditched and effectively started from scratch. They were relying on stopping the SOGAT journalists from using the computers. They were entirely duped. The Society of Graphical and Allied Trades (SOGAT) was a British trade union formed in 1889. ...

It was a brave new world and not one that was lightly undertaken. An option could be to use printers who did not belong to a union, but the outcome chosen was to use workers who belonged to the EETPU - they were being classed as electricians. This was a loophole to avoid confrontation with the NGA, a union who were not the greatest advocates of change. It was known a sweetheart deal. In November 1986, the TUC decided not to punish the EEPTU for this deal. Brave New World is a dystopian novel by Aldous Huxley, first published in 1932. ...

Expulsion from the TUC

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. Image:TradeUnionsCongress20050108 CopyrightKaihsuTai. ... The EMI Group is a major record label, based in Hammersmith, London, in the United Kingdom and with operations in over 25 other countries. ... In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms which refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially in the American sense of the word), or with opposition...

Once separate from the TUC, communist sections of the union re-emerged in an effort to change the policies of the union.

Mergers

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, and was knighted in 1999. The AEEU then 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, a left-winger, since June 2002. Tony Dubbins, of the NGA in the Wapping dispute, became Joint Deputy General Secretary in 2004. The Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union (AEEU) was a British trade union. ... Manufacturing, Science and Finance (or the Manufacturing, Science and Finance Union; almost exclusively known as MSF) was a trade union in Britain. ... The private sector of a nations economy consists of those entities which are not controlled by the state - i. ... Derek Simpson was the surprise winner of the election to General Secretary of the AEEU, and Joint General Secretary of Amicus. ...

See also

Light & Liberty: A history of the EEPTU by John Lloyd. ISBN 0-297-79662-3

External links

• Lord Chapple dies in 2004