Graphical, Paper and Media Union | |
 | |
| Merged into | Amicus |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1991 |
| Dissolved | 2005 |
| Headquarters | 63-67 Bromham Road, Bedford |
| Location | |
Members | 282,000 (1991 [1] ) |
Key people | Tony Dubbins, General Secretary |
| Affiliations | TUC |
| Website | www |
The Graphical, Paper and Media Union (GPMU) was a trade union in the United Kingdom and Ireland between 1991 and 2005.
The GPMU was formed from the merger of SOGAT and the National Graphical Association (NGA) and claimed to be the world's largest media union, having over 200,000 members working in the print, publishing, paper, IT and media industries.
The general secretaries of both predecessor unions stood in the GPMU leadership election, with an agreement that the loser would become Deputy General Secretary. Tony Dubbins of the NGA narrowly defeated Brenda Dean of SOGAT, by 78,654 votes to 72,657. [2] Dubbins served as general secretary throughout the GPMU's existence, but Dean stood down after one year ; [3] in 1994, Tony Burke became Deputy General Secretary. The first General President was Bryn Griffith, former General President of the NGA, who defeated Danny Seargant of SOGAT. [2] Griffith was succeeded by Doug Douglas, following a controversial High Court case, when the union tried to ignore the ballot result in 1995.
Facing a decline in membership, in February 2004, GPMU opened merger negotiations with the skilled engineering, manufacturing and white collar union Amicus. In August 2004, results of a ballot of all members were released, showing 86% of members in favour of merger. The formal merger took place in early 2005, (at the same time the finance union UNIFI joined Amicus) and GPMU became the semi-autonomous Graphical, Paper and Media sector of Amicus. Tony Dubbins became the Deputy General Secretary of Amicus and Tony Burke became Assistant General Secretary of Amicus. Tony Dubbins was also the union's political head and Chair of TULO. He retired to Spain in October, 2008.
Amicus merged with the Transport & General Workers Union in May 2007 to form Unite the Union. [4] The GPM sector of Amicus become the Graphical, Paper & Media sector of Unite the Union. [5]
Tony Burke became the Assistant General Secretary of Unite responsible for the union's manufacturing section.
In 2014 faced with major changes to the print, communications and the media industries, the Unite sectors GPM merged with Information, Technology and Communications sector to form the GPM ITC sector, [6] currently known as the GPM & IT sector. [7]
A permanent display of memorabilia and the history of the print and papermaking unions of the UK and Ireland is housed at the Marx Memorial Library in Clerkenwell, London.
The union sponsored several Parliamentary candidates, many of whom won election. All such sponsorship arrangements ended in 1995, when the Labour Party changed its rules. [8] [9]
| Election | Constituency | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 general election | Bradford North | Terry Rooney | 23,420 | 47.8 | 1 |
| Clackmannan | Martin O'Neill | 18,829 | 49.1 | 1 | |
| Leeds North East | Fabian Hamilton | 18,218 | 36.8 | 2 | |
| Leicester South | Jim Marshall | 27,934 | 52.3 | 1 | |
| Manchester Central | Bob Litherland | 23,336 | 72.7 | 1 | |
| Newham North East | Ron Leighton | 20,952 | 58.3 | 1 | |
| Stretford | Tony Lloyd | 22,300 | 59.6 | 1 | |
| 1994 by-election | Bradford South | Gerry Sutcliffe | 17,014 | 55.3 | 1 |
Anthony Woodley, Baron Woodley, is a British trade unionist who was the Joint-General Secretary of Unite, a union formed through the merger of Amicus and the Transport and General Workers' Union, from 2007 to 2011. Despite stepping down as Joint-General Secretary, he remained as the Head of Organising for Unite until December 2013 and is still a consultant to the union. He was previously the General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers union (T&G) from 2004 to 2007.
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The Transport and General Workers' Union was one of the largest general trade unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland – where it was known as the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union (ATGWU) to differentiate itself from the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union – with 900,000 members. It was founded in 1922 and Ernest Bevin served as its first general secretary.
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The Society of Graphical and Allied Trades (SOGAT) was a British trade union in the printing industry.
The National Graphical Association (NGA) was a trade union representing typographers and related workers in the United Kingdom.
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The Modern Records Centre (MRC) is the specialist archive service of the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, located adjacent to the Central Campus Library. It was established in October 1973 and holds the world's largest archive collection on British industrial relations, as well as archives relating to many other aspects of British social, political and economic history.
Brenda Dean, Baroness Dean of Thornton-le-Fylde, was a British trade unionist and Labour Party politician. As general secretary of SOGAT from 1985 until 1991, she was "the first woman elected to head a major industrial trade union."
The Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union, known as the EETPU, was a British trade union formed in 1968 as a union for electricians and plumbers, which went through three mergers from 1992 to now be part of Unite the Union.
Tony Dubbins was a prominent British trade unionist until his retirement from Unite in 2008.
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Amicus was the United Kingdom's second-largest trade union, and the largest private sector union, formed by the merger of Manufacturing Science and Finance and the AEEU, agreed in 2001, and two smaller unions, UNIFI and the GPMU. Amicus also organised in both parts of Ireland and was affiliated to the UK Trades Union Congress, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the Scottish Trades Union Congress.
Unite the Union, commonly known as Unite, is a British and Irish trade union which was formed on 1 May 2007 by the merger of Amicus and the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU). Unite is the second largest trade union in the UK, with over 1.4 million members across construction, manufacturing, transport, logistics, and other sectors. The general secretary of Unite is Sharon Graham, who was elected on 25 August 2021 with 46,696 votes on a turnout of 124,127, with her term beginning on 26 August 2021.
The National Union of Wallcoverings, Decorative and Allied Trades (NUWDAT) was an industrial union representing workers connected with the manufacture of wallpaper in the United Kingdom.
The Printing and Kindred Trades Federation (P&KTF) was a trade union federation in the United Kingdom.
Owen O'Brien was a British trade union leader.
Tony Burke is a British trade union leader.
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