Unifi's 150,000 finance members have officially merged with private sector trade union Amicus.
The merger includes 50,000 Unifi members who work in the insurance industry. Amicus said the first priority of the enlarged union would be to target the 750,000 finance workers who were not currently members of a trade union.
Unifi general secretary Ed Sweeney said: “As more companies merge and consolidate to become bigger and bigger, unions need to be ahead of the game. Size matters when it comes to utilising the resources necessary to protect workers in modern companies where cost-cutting and short-termism is rife.”
“It is a myth that finance employers are paternalistic and caring. Long gone are the days of a ‘safe' job.
“Unfortunately, the relentless ‘sell sell' culture creates unhealthy levels of stress for staff who are forced to do vast amounts of unpaid overtime to keep targets on track, and in many cases to keep their salaries at a reasonable level.”
Amicus' Derek Simpson remains general secretary of the union, with Sweeney becoming deputy general secretary.
The GPMU will join Amicus later in the year. With the GPMU's 170,000 members on board, Amicus would then become the UK's largest union, it said.
