A TENTATIVE deal was agreed yesterday under which the electricians'
union, formerly known as the EETPU, can return to the TUC fold now that
it is part of the new Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union.
However, the compromise arrangement arrived at by the TUC general
council delays their re-entry until after next week's annual TUC
Congress. There is certain to be another row then as the outstanding
problems of re-afilliating the former rebels have been merely deferred
rather than resolved.
Although the compromise was endorsed by a 25-12 vote of the general
council, the largest affiliate, the Transport and General Workers Union,
and the construction union Ucatt both voted against, with the
Manufacturing Science and Finance Union abstaining.
With many small unions already poised to oppose the bid by the AEEU
unless all outstanding membership problems inherited with the EETPU are
resolved, it would require only one large union or several medium sized
ones to swing Congress against the compromise.
Last night the AEEU decided by a narrow majority to go along with the
compromise affiliation terms thrashed out after a series of more than 40
conciliation meetings.
Unison's deputy general secretary, Mr Rodney Bickerstaffe, and the
former Acas chief conciliator, Mr Dennis Boyd, had tried to placate 14
affiliates with outstanding grievance against the EETPU, which was
expelled from the TUC five years ago for breaching recruiting rules and
regulations.
Most have been resolved but the position of a handful of officials and
several thousand construction workers recruited from Ucatt and the TGWU
remains an obstacle.
The affiliation terms offered the AEEU include abiding by the original
TUC disputes committee rulings, defiance of which led to the EETPU being
expelled.
* TUC plans to wrest the Unity Trust trophy from the industrial
correspondents at the traditional pre-Congress cricket match tomorrow
were thrown into disarray after women general council members rebelled
against their exclusion from the team.
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