The Trade Unions Congress (TUC) is a federation of trade unions in the United Kingdom, representing the majority of labour unions. There are seventy one affiliated unions with a total of about seven million members.
The TUC's decision-making body is the annual Congress, which takes place in September. Between Congresses decisions are made by the General Council, which meets every two months. The Executive Committee is elected by the Council from its members. The leader of the TUC is the General Secretary, currently Brendan Barber.
The UK Association of Organised Trades, founded in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, in 1866, was the forerunner of the TUC (though efforts to expand local unions into regional or national organisations date back at least forty years earlier; in 1822, John Gast formed a 'Committee of the Useful Classes', sometimes described as an early national trades council).
In early 1975 the TUC issued an invitation to Alexander Shelepin, the former SovietKGB Chief, to visit Britain. This sparked a debate in the House of Commons during which Conservative MP Julian Amery stated that "more and more people are beginning to look upon the TUC as a Communist-penetrated show and this invitation must strengthen that view." Amery was a member of the Monday Club, which at the time was itself widely accused of having been penetrated by the National Front.
The leading member unions of the TUC formed and still largely fund the British Labour Party, but there is no formal link between the TUC and the party.
Aspect (Association of Professionals in Education and Children's Trusts) [formerly National Association of Educational Inspectors, Advisers and Consultants (NAEIAC)]
