Amicus (trade union)

[2] 'Amicus' was chosen from the suggestion of Peter Skinner MEP for the name of this new union for its Latin meaning: friend, comrade (m).

The AEEU section held an election in July 2002, and Sir Ken Jackson was replaced by Derek Simpson who took office in January 2003.

On 14 June 2006 the GMB Conference voted not to continue with discussions although the other two unions pursued merger talks.

[3] The T&G and Amicus proceeded without GMB involvement,[4] with delegates from the two unions approving the proposed 'Instrument of Amalgamation' at a special conference on 18 December 2006.

If successful this would create an international "super union" with more than 3 million members, more able to pressure multinational companies and their managers.

At other times the National Executive Council, which met every two months, was responsible for governance of the union.

However, the General Secretary was empowered to make executive decisions in the periods between meetings of the NEC.

A further facility, Whitehall College in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, is currently inactive, following a survey which revealed the presence of large amounts of asbestos that would be expensive to remove.

An Amicus region typically contained several hundred branches, each of which represent a smaller group of members, running local campaigns on their behalf and providing a means for members to socialise with one another and increase their involvement in Amicus and the wider union movement.

Branches were typically organised on a workplace, geographical or sectoral basis, and varied in size from a few dozen to several thousand members.

A notable exception is for the secretary of a regional or national committee, who is usually a Full-Time Officer employed by the union.

In the 2002 General Secretary election, several officials of the AEEU section admitted to double-voting at different branches after a The Guardian exposure of the practice.

[18] In June 2002, The AEEU section London and south-east regional secretary, Roger Maskell, resigned following complaints by candidate Derek Simpson of tampering of computer voting records.

[19][20] Roger Maskell subsequently started a constructive dismissal action at an employment tribunal.

In a legal statement the union's head of information systems said he was instructed by a senior official to amend voting software to allow 730,000 members to vote rather than the correct figure of 618,000, by including former members who had left the union in the preceding two years.

Amicus wrote and created the role of the Trade Union Disability Champion@Work.

Funded initially by a European grant under the Year of Disabled People 2003 there are now over a thousand Champions from nearly 40 trade unions operating in workplaces across the UK and Ireland.