Amicus is the United Kingdom's second-largest trade union, and the largest private sector union, formed by the merger of several unions including MSF (Manufacturing Science and Finance) and the AEEU (Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union) agreed in 2001. Amicus also organises in both parts of Ireland and is affiliated to the UK Trades Union Congress, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the Scottish Trades Union Congress.

Industry representation

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Amicus organises workers in almost every industry, predominantly in the private sector. At the 2005 TUC Congress it was reported that Amicus had 1,200,000 members of whom 266,986 were female and 933,014 male.

Foundation

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When the merger to form Amicus was agreed, the General Secretary of MSF was Roger Lyons, and Sir Ken Jackson led the AEEU. When the merger came into force they both became Joint General Secretaries of Amicus. Jackson was forced to hold an election, and was replaced by Derek Simpson. In May 2004, Simpson became General Secretary in his own right following the departure of Lyons. 'Amicus' was chosen for the name of this new union for its Latin meaning: friend, comrade (m).

Further mergers

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In late 2004 two other major unions joined Amicus - UNIFI (the union for the finance industry) and GPMU (the Graphical, Paper and Media Union). Currently, discussions are ongoing with the Transport and General Workers Union and the GMB with a view to merging. The resultant super-union would become the largest trade union in Britain and Ireland by a very large margin; it has the working name of 'The New Union'.

More on [ Amicus ]

BBC News | UK | World Edition

Bank holds UK interest rate at 5%
Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:21:48 -0000
The Bank of England keeps its key interest rate at 5% as it weighs up the slowing economy with inflation worries.
BA bosses in price-fixing charge
Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:46:01 -0000
Four current and former British Airways executives may face jail if convicted of fixing the price of fuel surcharges.
Beijing protesters return to UK
Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:46:35 -0000
Two Britons detained close to the Olympic stadium in Beijing after staging a protest about Tibet have arrived back in UK.
Teenager shot dead in crossfire
Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:35:06 -0000
An 18-year-old shot dead in a supermarket was an innocent bystander caught in crossfire, police say.
Fears prompt MMR campaign
Thu, 07 Aug 2008 10:08:09 -0000
Doctors are urged to offer all children up to 18 the MMR jab amid concern of a growing risk of a measles epidemic.
House prices 'fell 1.7% in July'
Thu, 07 Aug 2008 10:23:45 -0000
The Halifax says house prices fell 1.7% in July, with the average property price now 8.8% lower than at the same point last year.

The Economist: Britain

Bagehot: ArmaGordon
Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:10:21 -0000
Are the stakes high enough to justify regicide?THE word "fascist" was whispered by some discomforted observers at last year's Labour Party conference: so triumphalist was the mood, so impregnable seemed the new prime minister, so confident his followers of smashing the Conservatives, snuffing out David Cameron and securing near-eternal power. That was then. The Labour conference this September will be a festival of existential angst--and thus, perhaps, of regicide.The political costs of deposing Gordon Brown so soon after Labour ditched Tony Blair would be huge. Almost all Labour MPs endorsed Mr Brown's accession; ousting him would make them look preposterous. His remaining allies point out, menacingly but fairly, that yet another prime minister with no personal mandate would probably feel obliged to hold a general election quickly. Thus a move against Mr Brown this autumn might necessitate a vote early next year--in the middle of an economic slump, with the party almost broke and Mr Cameron's Tories, in all likelihood, still 20-odd points up in the polls. That prospect makes sparing Mr Brown, at least until next summer, seem prudent. ...
Teaching economics: A vanishing breed
Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:10:21 -0000
The dwindling number of those training to teach economics in secondary schools is less worrying than it seemsIN EARLY July Edinburgh belatedly erected a statue, complete with semi-invisible hand, to Adam Smith, thus granting one of the fathers of economics, and Scotland's most meritorious son, long-overdue recognition. Yet there is a good chance that the statue will garner as many glances of blank indifference as of knowing admiration--at least from Britain's younger citizens.According to a report this week from the Centre for Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham, only three of the 16,440 graduates who began training as secondary-school teachers in England last year enrolled to teach economics. In 2006, by comparison, 84 graduates signed up to do so. Not unrelatedly, perhaps, the number of students studying A-level economics has fallen by 29% over the past decade, even though total A-level entries have risen by 9%. ...
Housing market : When the tap turns off
Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:10:21 -0000
Lending has slowed to a trickle. What can be done to change that?WOOLWICH is a down-at-heel working-class port in East London that teeters between gentrification and decay. To the right of the railway station are the money-wiring agencies, mobile-phone shops and African restaurants that identify this as an immigrant neighbourhood. To the left the high street leads to the river, and rows of smart new apartment blocks designed for bankers working in nearby Canary Wharf. The house-price bubble inflated here as fast as just about anywhere in the country. Get-rich-quick investors helped by crafting dubious schemes to get mortgages without paying a deposit and banks seemed happy to oblige them. Instead of making a quick pound, though, many buyers are now losing their shirts. Flats that they bought three years ago for GBP330,000 ($580,000 at the time) are back on the market for less than GBP200,000. One was sold at auction recently for just GBP115,000. In March (the most recent month for which data are available) the average outstanding mortgage in this neighbourhood was 91% of the value of the property it was secured on--the highest loan-to-value ratio in London and the third-highest in the country, reckons Experian, a credit-scoring outfit. With banks virtually on strike and loans approved only for those able to put up huge deposits, Woolwich is enduring a particularly hard landing. New flats in Thamesmead, downriver from Woolwich, are standing half-empty, the overgrown gardens filled with litter. ...
Political vacations: On the beach
Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:10:21 -0000
The leader at bay and at play"BUT where are their policies?", the prime minister yelped, as a graphic of the Conservatives' midsummer poll lead flashed across the television. His jowls creased with sorrow as one of his rivals appeared, professing his loyalty. An arm flexed to hurl the remote control at the screen--then "relax," he told himself, "relax". He flicked through the channels, searching for Scottish football or talent-show reruns. After breakfast he started work on his speech for the Labour Party conference in September. It would be the speech of his life, a speech that would unite his party, silence his rivals, make floating voters swoon and grown Tories weep. It would acknowledge the economic plight of hard-working families while reminding people that the real culprits were nefarious financiers, greedy oil moguls and hungry Asians. It would draw a perfect arc from his childhood in Kirkcaldy to the after-hours opening of doctors' surgeries. ...
Housing market: Rent now, buy later
Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:10:21 -0000
Prices may be tumbling, but rents are still risingBRITAIN is a nation divided by its citizens' attitudes to the housing market. Among investors, estate agents and homeowners with eye-watering mortgages the mood is gloomy: every piece of news about the rapidly deflating housing bubble (prices have fallen by 9% since last October) is pored over and lamented. Among the young and houseless, price falls are a cause for celebration, even if the logjam in the money markets means that at present only those with the fattest piggy-banks can take advantage of cheaper homes. But capital values are only one part of the housing story. Britain's private rental sector has grown enormously over the past five years, fuelled by a vogue for "buy-to-let" schemes that has promoted rental property as a safe, indeed highly profitable, investment. Half a million private landlords now control 2.5m homes, roughly an eighth of the total housing supply. The Association of Residential Letting Agents reckons that the value of rented homes, estimated at around GBP500 billion, exceeds the total value of all the commercial premises in Britain. And although falling capital values will hurt landlords, their gloom is brightened somewhat by the fact that there is plenty of business, and rents are still rising. ...
Terrorism in Northern Ireland: Down but not out
Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:10:21 -0000
Republican dissidents still make life a miseryTELLING terrorist groups you think them dangerous is not a gambit security services favour--especially when the groups are small and unpopular. But as the anniversary approaches of the car bomb which killed 29 people in Omagh on August 15th 1998, police in Northern Ireland admit that they expect more attacks from republican paramilitaries who hate Belfast's power-sharing settlement. Sir Hugh Orde, the chief constable, says that the "dissidents" are now more dangerous than before because "it is their end-game".These republican splinter groups may attract little popular support but they are said to have about 80 people on tap to shoot or bomb--more than enough to cause misery. That estimate comes from a new MI5 base in Holywood, near Belfast, that has been responsible for gathering intelligence on the dissidents since the end of last year. In the ten years since Omagh, dissidents have caused a further ten deaths, several of them the result of internal republican feuding. Dozens of planned bombings have been foiled by their own bungles or by police intervention after tip-offs. But some dissidents, it seems, are now trying to import weaponry: two Irish nationals were arrested in Lithuania in January for allegedly attempting to buy guns and explosives. ...

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