The Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union, known as the EETPU, was a British trade union formed in 1968 as a union for
electrician
An electrician is a tradesman, tradesperson specializing in electrical wiring of buildings, transmission lines, stationary machines, and related equipment. Electricians may be employed in the installation of new electrical components or the ...
s and
plumber
A plumber is a tradesperson who specializes in installing and maintaining systems used for potable (drinking) water, hot-water production, sewage and drainage in plumbing systems. s, which went through three mergers from 1992 to now be part of
Unite the Union
Unite the Union, commonly known as Unite, is a trade union in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland, formed on 1 May 2007 by the merger of Amicus (trade union), Amicus and the Transport and General Workers' Union. A general union ...
.
History
The union was formed in July 1968 with the merger of the
Electrical Trades Union and the
Plumbing Trades Union to form the Electrical, Electronic & Telecommunications Union & Plumbing Trades Union, which became the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications & Plumbing Union in 1973.
Archives of government papers show that "a period of severe industrial unrest" began in September 1970. Local authority manual workers wanted a £30 minimum weekly wage. A Committee of Inquiry recommended a 14.5 per cent increase, but the government considered it to be too high. In the winter that followed (i.e. winter of 1970/1971) an electricity power workers strike caused the Cabinet to declare a national emergency. The first miners' strike followed in 1972.
For many years the EETPU owned and operated its own Technical Training Department which was based at Cudham Hall in Kent. This received much acclaim and press attention in its day. It later evolved into a private company known as Technical Training Solutions.
In September 1982, Chapple became
President of the Trades Union Congress and was succeeded by Eric Hammond in 1984. Chapple was elevated to the
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...
as Lord Chapple of Hoxton in 1985.
In 1986 the union's members replaced print workers that had been sacked by
News International
News Corp UK & Ireland Limited (trading as News UK, formerly News International and NI Group) is a List of newspapers in the United Kingdom, British newspaper publisher, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the American mass media Conglomerate (c ...
, prompting the
Wapping dispute that led to the irrevocable change of
Fleet Street
Fleet Street is a street in Central London, England. It runs west to east from Temple Bar, London, Temple Bar at the boundary of the City of London, Cities of London and City of Westminster, Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the Lo ...
.
Expulsion from the TUC
The union had its own approach to making deals with companies, and thus often clashed with the
TUC from which it was expelled for violating the
Bridlington Agreement governing the transfer of members between 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
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
ese battery company),
Thorn-EMI and
Orion (a Japanese electronics company). The EETPU refused and its 225,000 workers were expelled. Around 5,000 members, led by John Aitkin, decided to split away in order to remain within the mainstream trade union movement, and founded the
Electrical and Plumbing Industries Union.
[John B. Smethurst and Peter Carter, ''Historical Directory of Trade Unions'', vol.6, p.207] It has since been revealed that the EETPU colluded with the Thatcher government in the 1980s, giving advice to ministers about how to 'deal' with left-wing unions, and possibly supplied a list of left-wing union members to the government and security services.
Mergers
The union merged with the
Amalgamated Engineering Union 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
The private sector is the part of the economy which is owned by private groups, usually as a means of establishment for profit or non profit, rather than being owned by the government.
Employment
The private sector employs most of the workfo ...
union with 1.2m workers, was led by
Derek Simpson since June 2002. Tony Dubbins, of the NGA in the Wapping dispute, became Joint Deputy General Secretary in 2004. Amicus merged with the
Transport and General Workers' Union
The Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU or T&G) was one of the largest general union, general trade unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland—where it was known as the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union (ATGWU)—with 900 ...
in May 2007 to become
Unite the Union
Unite the Union, commonly known as Unite, is a trade union in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland, formed on 1 May 2007 by the merger of Amicus (trade union), Amicus and the Transport and General Workers' Union. A general union ...
.
Amalgamations
A large number of small unions amalgamated with the EETPU:
[Gary N. Chaison, ''Union Mergers in Hard Times: The View from Five Countries'', pp. 175–184.]
* 1980: Steel Industry Management Association, Telecommunications Staff Association, United Kingdom Association of Professional Engineers
* 1982: British Transport Officers' Guild
* 1983: Association of Management and Professional Staffs
* 1984: Rolls-Royce Management Association
* 1989: Association of British Professional Divers, Ministry of Defence Staff Association, National Association of Senior Probation Officers, Nelson and District Power Loom Overlookers' Association, Springfield Foreman's Association
* 1990: Haslingden and District Power Loom Overlookers' Association, Institute of Journalists Trade Union, National Association of Fire Officers, National Association of Power Loom Overlookers, Nationally Integrated Caring Employees, Prison Service Union, Television and Film Production Employees' Association
* 1991: Colne and District Power Loom Overlookers' Association
* 1992: British Cement Staffs Association
Election results
The union sponsored many
Labour Party candidates in each Parliamentary election.
Leadership
General Secretaries
:1968:
Frank Chapple
:1984:
Eric Hammond
General Presidents
:1968:
Les Cannon
:1972: Frank Chapple (jointly with general secretary post)
:1975: Tom Breakell
:1986:
Paul Gallagher
Plumbing National Secretaries
:1968:
Charles Lovell
:1988: Bill Gannon
References
External links
Catalogue of the EETPU archives held at the
Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
*
*
*{{cite news
, url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=wQw-AAAAIBAJ&sjid=qEkMAAAAIBAJ&pg=2816,3172688&dq=electrical-electronic-telecommunications-and-plumbing-union&hl=en
, title=Join Us, Union Urges Tories
, first=Alan , last=Wallace
, newspaper=Evening Times
, location=Glasgow
, date=18 November 1982
, page=19
, quote=The Right-wing Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications, and Plumbing Union believes it has to take the arguments "beyond the Labour Party and the TUC to those who have influence in our society."
, access-date=7 January 2013
Defunct trade unions of the United Kingdom
1968 establishments in the United Kingdom
Trade unions established in 1968
Trade unions disestablished in 1992
Trade unions based in London