The General Council of the Trades Union Congress is an elected body which is responsible for carrying out the policies agreed at the annual British Trade Union Congresses (TUC).
Organisation
The council has 56 members, all of whom must be proposed by one of the unions affiliated to the TUC. Unions with more members receive an automatic allocation of seats, in proportion to their membership. Smaller unions propose candidates for eleven elected seats. In addition, there are separately elected seats: four for women, three for black workers, at least one of whom must be a woman, and one each for young workers, workers with disabilities, and LGBT workers. The General Secretary also has a seat on the council.[1]
Some members of the council are further elected to serve on the smaller Executive Committee of the TUC. The President of the Trades Union Congress is also chosen by the General Council.[1]
Although the TUC has long had links with the Labour Party, members of the General Council are not permitted to sit on Labour's National Executive Committee.[2]
History
1921 to 1983
Until 1921, the leading body of the TUC was the Parliamentary Committee. This had seventeen members, but by the collapse of the Triple Alliance, it was considered ineffective and to have insufficient powers in industrial matters.
The new General Council had 32 members, elected from industrial groups, each consisting of one or more unions operating in a particular industry. Two of the places were reserved for women. It received additional powers to intervene in the case of major industrial disputes, and to resolve inter-union conflicts. In 1924, the Joint Consultative Committee was set up, which brought trades councils ultimately under the control of the General Council.[3] However, these powers were not always exercised; many members of the council in the early years were elected on grounds of seniority, rather than recent accomplishments. Some were associated with left- and right-wing factions, although most were not strongly identified with a particular wing of the movement.[4]
Changes to the groups and numbers of seats were made over time, as the number of workers represented in different industries fluctuated,[5] but the system survived intact until the early 1980s.
Group 1: Mining and Quarrying
Most of the members elected from Group 1 represented the large Miners' Federation of Great Britain, or its successor, the National Union of Mineworkers, but there were several smaller unions which often managed to win one seat.[6]
Group 5: Engineering, Founding and Vehicle Building
Group 5 contained a large number of unions - 26 in 1934 - and while the Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU) reliably won at least one seat, unions like the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) and United Patternmakers' Association (UPA) often won seats.[6]
The Iron and Steel and Minor Metal Trades Group was originally Group 6, but was renumbered in 1968. The Iron and Steel Trades Confederation (ISTC) was the largest union in the group, and consistently held one of its seats. Until 1966, there was a second seat, held by the tiny National Union of Gold, Silver and Allied Trades (NUGSAT), and later by the National Union of Blastfurnacemen (NUB). There were many other small unions in the group - in 1934, it had 23 members.[6]
The Cotton Group was the original Group 9; in 1968, it was merged into the Textiles Group. The cotton industry had a large number of small trade unions, and in 1934, the group had 46 members. Unusually, the majority of individual members of the unions were women, but the seats were always won by men, representing one of the three amalgamations to which most of the unions belonged: the Amalgamated Weavers' Association (AWA), the Amalgamated Association of Operative Cotton Spinners (AAOCS), and the Cardroom Amalgamation (CWA).[6]
The Boot, Shoe and Leather Group was dominated by the National Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives (NUBSO). It also included smaller rivals, notably the Rossendale Union of Boot, Shoe and Slipper Operatives, unions of leather workers, and the National Union of Glovers.[14] The Boot, Shoe and Leather Group was the original Group 12, but in 1968 it was merged into the Clothing Group.
There were initially a large number of unions of general workers, but within a couple of decades, they had all been absorbed into two large general unions - the National Union of General and Municipal Workers (NUGMW), which became the sole union in this group, and the Transport and General Workers' Union, which was instead placed in Group 3.[14] The General Workers Group was originally Group 17 and was renumbered on the creation of the Civil Servants Group, in 1948.
In 1921, the Women's Trade Union League became the Women's Section of the TUC, and most women's trade unions merged into their counterparts. In exchange, the TUC agreed to create a two-member group, to ensure that women workers had representation on the council.[16] The group was originally numbered 18, and was renumbered on the creation of the Civil Servants Group.
After many years of discussion, a comprehensive restructure of the council was agreed in 1982, and took place following the annual TUC meeting in September 1983. Initially, the new council had 53 members, with those unions with more than 100,000 members gaining automatic seats and therefore becoming eligible to nominate members without them being subject to a vote of other unions. Six seats were initially reserved for women.[17][18]
^Maor, Moshe (1997). Political Parties and Party Systems. London: Routledge. p. 121. ISBN 0415082846.
^Laybourn, Keith (1999). Modern Britain Since 1906: A Reader. London: I. B. Tauris & Co. p. 141. ISBN 1860642985.
^Calhoun, Daniel Fairchild (1976). The United Front!: The TUC and the Russians, 1923-1928. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 38–40. ISBN 0521210569.
^ abcTrades Union Congress, Report of Proceedings at the 83rd Annual Trades Union Congress, p.299
^ abcdefghijkSouvenir of the Trades Union Congress. Weymouth: Sherren and Son. 1934. pp. 14–30.