ABSTRACT
Although in 1955 the NUPB&PW was the 15th largest TUC affiliate and sent a 20-strong delegation including the General Secretary and the President to Congress, the union’s role in TUC affairs throughout the 1950s was minor. No motions were submitted to the Annual Congress, delegates rarely contributed to debate and the NUPB&PW Executive Annual Report seldom mentioned the TUC. 1 However, at the 1958 NUPB&PW Delegate Council Meeting a composite motion from the Nottingham and Manchester Branches instructed the NEC ‘to nominate, at the opportune time, one of the principal officers for the TUC General Council’ 2 on the grounds that the union took insufficient interest in the wider trade union movement. The motion was opposed by the NEC on whose behalf the General Secretary told delegates he had declined from standing for the General Council against the sitting member for the printing unions, Bob Willis from the LTS so as to avoid dissension between craft, semi-craft and non-craft unions. His workload made it difficult to attend the General Council and its sub-committee meetings, and it was in the interests of the NUPB&PW that he retained his position as P&KTF President. In the light of this information the motion was withdrawn, but in 1960 the Nottingham Branch again raised the issue of one of the officers being nominated for the General Council. This was, however, defeated, with the NEC arguing that any such nominee should be a national official.
