Liverpool University Press and the Marx Memorial Library & Workers’ School have been trying to make trade union history accessible again with a history of UNITE published in six cheap paperback volumes (each retails at £6.99) from 2022 onwards. We reviewed the first two volumes which covered the history of the Transport and General Workers’ Union, the core of UNITE, from 1880 to 1931 in the Labour History Review 87 (2) for July 2022 and Volume 2, covering the T&G from 1932 to 1945 in the Review 88 (1) for April 2023. 

Since then the pace of publication has increased and last year saw the publication of the final four volumes.  They are:

• ‘Volume 3 (1945-1960): The Transport and General Workers’ Union (TGWU): Post-War Britain, the Welfare State and the Cold War’ by Marjorie Mayo (pp. 132) which describes the challenges as well as the opportunities presented to the T&G in the post-War years.
• ‘Volume 4 (1960-1974): The Transport and General Workers’ Union (TGWU): Representing a Mass Trade Union Movement’ by John Foster (pp. 168) which charts a transformation from a period of doubt and reflection after the third successive defeat of the Labour Party at a General Election to a time of apparent triumph.
• ‘Volume 5 (1974-1992): The Transport and General Workers’ Union (TGWU): From Zenith to Nadir?’ by Mary Davis (pp. 147) shows how short-lived this zenith was and charts the decline of the T&G to its nadir in the face of the Thatcherite onslaught.
• Finally, ‘Volume 6 (1992-2010): The Transport and General Workers’ Union (TGWU): Unity for a New Era’ by Adrian Weir (pp. 133) details the rethinking of trade unionism forced on the movement by shrinking memberships, funds and influence and the consequent decision by the T&G to merge with Amicus to form UNITE in 2007. 

These volumes are all written in an accessible style and follow a straightforward narrative structure, eschewing academic disputes, arcane or otherwise, and standing clear away from the latest fashions in sociologese and the jargons of cultural history.  The authors and publishers are to be congratulated.

UNITE History Volumes 1-6 on the Liverpool University Press website.