Papers of the Electrical Trades Union

The Electrical Trades Union (ETU) was formed in November 1889 through a merger of the Amalgamated Society of Telegraph and Telephone Construction Men and the Union of Electrical Operatives.

The Amalgamated Society of Telegraph and Telephone Construction Men was a small organisation that originated in Manchester in the 1880s, primarily representing workers in the telephone and telegraph industries. By 1889 the union comprised around 400 members organised into six branches. During its first delegate meeting in November 1889, which representatives of the London-based Union of Electrical Operatives also attended, an amalgamation was agreed between the two unions, thereby forming an organisation with a national reach. The new organisation was to be called the Electrical Trades Union and R. Steadman was elected as its first part-time General Secretary. The ETU's ranks, now including electric light wiremen, expanded considerably in the union's first year, reaching over 1,000 members by the end of 1891. That year the union organised its first strike in response to working conditions at the Brighton office of the National Telephone Company. The strike would ultimately collapse, leading to a decline in ETU membership, which was compounded by trade depression and financial difficulties. With the union unable to meet the demands placed on its funds for unemployment benefit, its membership fell to a low of 236 by the end of 1895. By 1900, however, the union was steadily recovering and its membership would continue to climb in the following decades, sustaining almost 30,000 members across the 1920s. From the mid-1930s the union was active in campaigns for the nationalisation of the electricity supply industry, which would be effected from 1947. Across the 1940s and 50s the union was also dedicated to negotiating wage increases within the electricity industry. In 1961 the union was sued by one of its key officials, Leslie (Les) Cannon, who exposed extensive ballot rigging by the union's Communist-affiliated leadership during the 1959 General Secretary election. The scandal was heard in the High Court and effectively spelt the end of communist influence within the ETU, as well as leading to the union's temporary expulsion from the Trades Union Congress (TUC). The ETU underwent reorganisation and its rules were revised in response to the events. Cannon went on to become the ETU's General President from 1963 until his death in 1970. Cannon was succeeded as President by Francis (Frank) Chapple. Under Cannon's leadership the union successfully merged with the Plumbing Trades Union (PTU) in 1968 to form the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunication Union - Plumbing Trades Union. The PTU had existed under various names since 1865 but by the time of the merger was running at a deficit and seeking a solution. Meanwhile, for the ETU the amalgamation offered an opportunity to co-ordinate and strengthen union negotiations. In 1971 the new union was renamed the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunication and Plumbing Union (EETPU). In July 1988 the EETPU was expelled from the Trades Union Congress once again following its refusal to withdraw from single-union, strike-free deals with certain companies. In May 1992 the EETPU merged with the Amalgamated Engineering Union to form the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union (AEEU), readmitting the union's electrical section to the TUC.

This collection comprises annual reports, conference reports, journals of the ETU, and minutes of meetings of the Executive Council and Electrical Committee. The collection also includes material from earlier organisations, namely the United Operative Plumbers' and Domestic Engineers' Association of Great Britain and Ireland, which became the Plumbing Trades Union in 1946, and the Steam Engine Makers' Society, which merged with the Amalgamated Society of Engineers in 1920, later the Amalgamated Engineering Union. The collection also includes later records from the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunication and Plumbing Union (EETPU).