Joe Cotter

In response, Cotter founded the Ships' Stewards, Cooks, Butchers, and Bakers Union, of which he became secretary.

[10] When the National Maritime Board declared that it would cut wages by £2.10 a month in May 1921, Cotter led a strike.

With the encouragement of the TUC, Cotter began working closely once more with the NSFU, and took up an offer of employment from that union in August.

He announced that the AMWU had dissolved into the NSFU, which was renamed as the National Union of Seamen (NUS), but he did not have the authority to order the merger.

Wilson fired Cotter, Davies and seven other union officials in September 1927, and the NUS was expelled from the TUC.

Cotter led the fired officials in taking the NUS to court, arguing that the donation was ultra vires, but lost the case.

[15] In 1929, he and another man were accused of knowingly receiving a letter that was stolen from the lawyer of the NUS, but the charges were dismissed.