Trade Union Badges

AMALGAMATED SOCIETY OF ENGINEERS, MACHINISTS, SMITHS, MILLRIGHTS and PATTERNMAKERS (ASE)

Formed 6th January 1851 from a number of small, mainly regional, engineering trade unions.

On the 1st July 1920 the ASE merged with nine other engineering trade unions to form the

AMALGAMATED ENGINEERING UNION (AEU).

AMALGAMATED UNION of ENGINEERING and FOUNDRY WORKERS (AEF)

In 1970 the AEF merged with the DRAUGHTSMANS AND ALLIED TECHNICIANS ASSOCIATION (DATA) which became the Technical and Supervisory Section (TASS) of the union and the CONSTRUCTURAL ENGINEERING UNION (CEU) to form the

AMALGAMATED UNION of ENGINEERING WORKERS.
(AUEW)

Internal differences led TASS to withdraw from AUEW and in 1985 the name once more became the

AMALGAMATED ENGINEERING UNION (AEU)

In 1992 the AEU finally merged with the ELECTRICAL, ELECTRONIC, TELECOMMUNICATIONS and PLUMBING UNION (EEPTU), after a hundred years of off and on discussions and became the

AMALGAMATED ENGINEERING and ELECTRICAL UNION (AEEU)

In 2002 AEEU merged with MANUFACTURING, SCIENCE and FINANCE (MSF) to form

AMICUS

Since this merger other Trade Unions have been absorbed, the major ones being GRAPHICAL, PAPER and MEDIA UNION (GPMU) a print union and UNIFI a banking and insurance union.  Ongoing discussions with the TRANSPORT and GENERAL WORKERS UNION suggest that this family of badges is an ongoing one.

Trevor Owens
November 2006