Amicus

:For the legal term, see Amicus curiae. For the film company, see Amicus Productions.

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Amicus is Britain's second largest trade union, formed by the merger of MSF (Manufacturing Science and Finance) and the AEEU (Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union) agreed in 2001. Amicus also organises in both parts of Ireland.

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Amicus is affiliated to the Trades Union Congress and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.

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Amicus was chosen for the name of this new union for its Latin meaning: friend, comrade. The choice of a name beginning with A is probably not accidental, because it causes the union to appear at the beginning of an alphabetically-ordered list of British or Irish unions.

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Amicus organises workers in almost every industry, predominantly in the private sector.

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When the merger to form Amicus was agreed, the General Secretary of MSF was Roger Lyons, and Sir Ken Jackson led the AEEU. When the merger came into force they both became Joint General Secretaries of Amicus. Jackson was forced to hold an election, and was replaced by Derek Simpson. In May 2004, Simpson became General Secretary in his own right following the departure of Lyons.

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In late 2004 two other major unions joined Amicus - UNIFI (organising finance workers) and GPMU (Graphical, Paper and Media Union).

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Currently, discussions are ongoing with the Transport and General Workers Union and the GMB with a view to merging. The resultant super-union would become the largest trade union in Britain and Ireland by a very large margin.

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Amicus has a corporate office at 35 King Street in London's Covent Garden, and its main administrative centre is at Bromley in south-east London. The union runs two colleges, at Esher in Surrey and at Wortley Hall near Sheffield. There are numerous other premises across the British Isles to support activity in each of the union's 12 regions.

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Amicus curiae: Amicus curiae (Latin, plural amici curiae) is defined as, "A friend of the court. One not a party to a case who volunteers to offer information on a point of law or some other aspect of the case to assist the court in deciding a matter before it". http://courts.delaware.gov/How%20To/court%20proceedi...

Amicus Productions: Amicus Productions was based at Shepperton Studios, UK, and founded by American producer and screenwriter Milton Subotsky and Max J. Rosenberg....

Britain: This article deals with the history of the word Britain. For clarification of terminology and an overview of articles about Britain and Ireland see British Isles (terminology)....