The Graphical, Paper and Media Union (GPMU) was a trade union in the United Kingdom and Ireland between 1991 and 2005.

History

The GPMU was formed from the merger of SOGAT and the National Graphical Association (NGA) and claimed to be the world's largest media union, having over 200,000 members working in the print, publishing, paper, IT and media industries.

The general secretaries of both predecessor unions stood in the GPMU leadership election, with an agreement that the loser would become deputy general secretary. Tony Dubbins of the NGA narrowly defeated Brenda Dean of SOGAT, by 78,654 votes to 72,657. Dubbins served as general secretary throughout the GPMU's existence, but Dean stood down after one year ; in 1994, Tony Burke became deputy general secretary. The first general president was Bryn Griffith, former general president of the NGA, who defeated Danny Sergeant of SOGAT. The GPM sector of Amicus become the Graphical, Paper & Media sector of Unite the Union.

Tony Burke became the assistant general secretary of Unite responsible for the union's manufacturing section.

In 2014 faced with major changes to the print, communications and the media industries, the Unite sectors GPM merged with Information, Technology and Communications sector to form the GPM ITC sector, currently known as the GPM & IT sector.

A permanent display of memorabilia and the history of the print and papermaking unions of the UK and Ireland is housed at the Marx Memorial Library in Clerkenwell, London.

Election results

The union sponsored several Parliamentary candidates, many of whom won election. All such sponsorship arrangements ended in 1995, when the Labour Party changed its rules.

{| class="wikitable sortable"

! Election !! Constituency !! Candidate !! Votes !! Percentage !! Position

|-

|rowspan=7| 1992 general election || Bradford North || || 23,420 || 47.8 || 1

|-

| Clackmannan || || 18,829 || 49.1 || 1

|-

| Leeds North East || || 18,218 || 36.8 || 2

|-

| Leicester South || || 27,934 || 52.3 || 1

|-

| Manchester Central || || 23,336 || 72.7 || 1

|-

| Newham North East || || 20,952 || 58.3 || 1

|-

| Stretford || || 22,300 || 59.6 || 1

|-

| 1994 by-election || Bradford South || || 17,014 || 55.3 || 1

|}

References

  • Unite
  • Graphical, Paper and Media sector of Unite
  • Catalogue of the GPMU archives, held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
  • Catalogue of the Printing Machine Branch archives, held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick