The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a British organisation that represents the UK's trade unions. These consist of 71 affiliated unions with a total of about seven million members.
The TUC's decision making body is the annual Congress which takes place in September. Between Congresses decisions are made by the General Council which meets every two months. The Executive Committee is elected by the Council from its members. The leader of the TUC is the General Secretary.
The UK Association of Organised Trades, founded in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, in 1866, was the forerunner of the (TUC). The Sheffield Trades Council, which is still active today, was founded in 1871. (Sheffield's early success in steel production had involved long working hours, in unpleasant conditions which offered little or no safety protection. It was no coincidence, therefore, that the city became one of the main centres for trade union organisation and agitation in the UK. By the 1860s, the inevitable conflict between capital and labour provoked the so-called "Sheffield Outrages").
The General Secretary of the TUC is the chief permanent officer of the Trades Union Congress, and a major figurehead in the trade union movement in the United Kingdom.
The Secretary is responsible for the effective operation of the TUC and for leading implementation of policies set by the annual Congress and the organisation's General Council.
The position was formed in 1921, when the Parliamentary Committee of the TUC became the General Council.