Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union

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The Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union (EETPU) was a former British Trade Union.[1]

ETU

The union was originally founded as the Electrical Trades Union.[1]

In 1956, Woodrow Wyatt's The Peril in Our Midst, published by a front organisation of the Information Research Department (IRD), claimed that under the influence of the World Federation of Trade Unions, ETU president Frank Foulkes and General Secretary Frank Haxell were working in the interests of Moscow. Wyatt's information came from MI5 via the IRD.[2]

MI5 was particularly concerned about Communist control of the ETU because of its role among civilian workers at GCHQ. In May 1956, Cabinet Secretary Norman Brook warned Prime Minister Anthony Eden that counter-action would have to be taken. Eden responded that "we shall have to go very carefully." Union leaders Sir Vincent Tewson and Sir Tom Williamson were discreetly briefed with MI5 material. MI5's interest in the ETU was also shared by the CIA in the late 1950s and 1960s.[3]

Wyatt also campaigned against Communist ballot-rigging in the ETU.[4]

Within the union, two key figures within the campaign were Les Cannon and Frank Chapple, who both left the Communist Party of Great Britain in protest at the Soviet invasion of Hungary. After Cannon beat Communist-backed candidate John Frazer for a place on the union executive, the results were falsified and Cannon was barred from holding union office for five years. Chapple succeeded in gaining a place on the executive in 1958, in the face of a campaign of intimidation against him.[5]

According to Christopher Andrew, MI5 eavesdropping on the headquarters of the Communist Party of Great Britain revealed that the 1959 ballot for general secretary had been fixed to re-elect Communist Frank Haxell rather than his opponent Jock Byrne.[6]

Roger Hollis reported to the Home Office, early in 1960, that the CPGB's advisory committee for the ETU held twelve meetings in 1959.[7]

The climax of the media campaign when former Labour Minister John Freeman interviewed ETU President Frank Foulkes. MI5 were kept informed of this event, which was arranged by Christopher Mayhew.[8]

A 1961 court ruling found that Communists controlled the union and that Foulkes and Haxell had rigged the election for General Secretary against Jock Byrne, who replaced Haxell as a result of the case. Les Cannon would replace Foulkes in 1963.[9]

The role of the secret state in these events was largely missed in many subsequent accounts not least in Arthur Bottomley's The Use and Abuse of Trade Unions, published by the IRD front Ampersand in 1963, which stated:

the ETU was cleaned up, not as a result of outside protest and agitation (though this undoubtedly played a part) but by the slogging, painstaking and dedicated efforts of a group of socialist trade unionists.[10]

EETPU

In 1968, following mergers the union became the Electrical, Electronic and Telecommunications Union - Plumbing Trades Union and then the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union.[1]

In August 1974, Frank Nodes who had worked with Les Cannon in the 1961-62 court struggle with the Communists, formed links with David Stirling's Better Britain Society through his own TRUEMID organisation.[11]

Frank Chapple later said: "I only met David Stirling on one occasion. I had great sympathy with what he was trying to do which was similar to what I was trying to do myself. Any contact with him would have made me less effective at that time."[12]

In 1986, General Secretary Eric Hammond conducted secret negotiations with Rupert Murdoch which were widely regarded as a major blow to the print unions in the Wapping dispute.[13]

The EEPTU was expelled from the TUC in 1988. It merged with the AUEW in 1992. The EEPTU wing of the combined union was re-admitted to the TUC in 1993.[1] The union was part of further mergers into Amicus in 2001 and Unite in 2007.[13]

People

President/General Secretary

Others

External resources

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 David Butler and Gareth Butler, Twentieth Century British Political Facts 1900-2000, Macmillan, 2000, p.390.
  2. ↑ Paul Lashmar and James Oliver, Britain's Secret Propaganda War 1948-1977, Sutton Publishing, 1998, p.111.
  3. ↑ Richard J. Aldrich, The Hidden hand: Britain, America and Cold War Secret Intelligence, Overlook Press, 2002, p.546.
  4. ↑ Paul Lashmar and James Oliver, Britain's Secret Propaganda War 1948-1977, Sutton Publishing, 1998, p.111-112.
  5. ↑ Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.409.
  6. ↑ Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.409.
  7. ↑ Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, pp.409-410.
  8. ↑ Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm, The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p.410.
  9. ↑ Paul Lashmar and James Oliver, Britain's Secret Propaganda War 1948-1977, Sutton Publishing, 1998, p.111-112.
  10. ↑ Quoted in Paul Lashmar and James Oliver, Britain's Secret Propaganda War 1948-1977, Sutton Publishing, 1998, p.157.
  11. ↑ Alan Hoe, David Stirling: The Authorised Biography of the Creator of the SAS, Warner Books, 1992, pp.437-439.
  12. ↑ Alan Hoe, David Stirling: The Authorised Biography of the Creator of the SAS, Warner Books, 1992, p.452.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Geoffrey Goodman, Eric Hammond, The Guardian, 3 June 2009.
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