Union support for the jobless

Aug 26 2009 by Matt Hurst, Heswall News

A UNION for the Unemployed is being launched in Birkenhead this week, for the first time since the 1940s.

Jobless figures across Merseyside are currently running around 2% above the national average.

As more people find themselves unemployed, staff at the Wirral Centre in Birkenhead feel its time an organisation was created to provide representation for an increasing number of residents.

Alec McFadden, company secretary of the Wirral Centre and president of Merseyside TUC, said: “In Merseyside unemployment has increased by 54% in the past 12 months and is now standing at 57,340, or 6.15%.

“That makes it 2% above the national average, which is 4.1%.

“The effects of the recession are now starting to have a detrimental effect on people, families and communities.”

The National Unemployed Workers’ Movement (NUWM) was established in 1921, to draw attention to the increasing numbers of jobless in the wake of World War One.

The NUWM was most active in the inter-war years, organising hunger marches to London throughout the 1920s and 30s.

The outbreak of war in 1939 forced a cessation and the NUWM was finally dissolved in 1946.

Alec McFadden said: “Who would have believed that the 21st Century would see the return of Unemployed Workers’ Organisations, which were so active and necessary in the 1930s when unemployment reached record levels.

“Nobody in modern Britain either speaks or represents the unemployed or their families.”

l A launch meeting, open to all unemployed people, takes place tomorrow, Thursday August 27 from 2pm at Wirral Centre, 4 St Anne Street, Birkenhead.