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

The Transport and General Workers鈥� Union has voted in favour of merger with Amicus to create the UK鈥檚 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."