Proposed merger will create UK's biggest union with around 2m members

The Transport and General Workers’ Union has voted in favour of merger with Amicus to create the UK’s largest trade union.

Delegates at a T&G conference yesterday voted overwhelming in favour of the merger which will create a union with around 2m members.

All members of T&G and Amicus will now be balloted on the merger with the new union in February. The new union, not yet named, is expected to launch on 1 May 2007 and will represent workers in transport, manufacturing, banking, print, and agriculture sectors.

T&G general secretary Tony Woodley said: "Not since 1922, when brave and visionary men and women from 14 different unions came together to form the T&G, has our union faced such a momentous choice. To stay as we are. Or to seize the future, with all its challenges and opportunities.

"If this merger is about one thing, it is this: working-class unity, the historic aim of our movement. That is why I believe that this new union, the best hope for the unity of the working class in Britain and Ireland, will become a beacon of attraction for other workers, other trade unions looking to fight back and win in the workplace."