Trades Union Congress

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a British organisation that represents the UK's trade unions. These consist of 71 affiliated unions with a total of about seven million members.

Related Topics:
British - Trade union

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The TUC's decision making body is the annual Congress which takes place in September. Between Congresses decisions are made by the General Council which meets every two months. The Executive Committee is elected by the Council from its members. The leader of the TUC is the General Secretary, which is currently Brendan Barber.

Related Topics:
General Secretary - Brendan Barber

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The UK Association of Organised Trades, founded in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, in 1866, was the forerunner of the TUC (though efforts to expand local unions into regional or national organisations date back at least 40 years earlier; in 1822, John Gast formed a 'Committee of the Useful Classes', sometimes described as an early national trades council).

Related Topics:
UK Association of Organised Trades - Sheffield - South Yorkshire - 1866 - 1822 - John Gast

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The Sheffield Trades Council, which is still active today, was founded in 1871. (Sheffield's early success in steel production had involved long working hours, in unpleasant conditions which offered little or no safety protection. It was no coincidence, therefore, that the city became one of the main centres for trade union organisation and agitation in the UK. By the 1860s, the inevitable conflict between capital and labour provoked the so-called "Sheffield Outrages").

Related Topics:
Sheffield Trades Council - 1871 - Steel - 1860s - Sheffield Outrages

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