Roadshow bid to win backing for British 'super union'

A UK-wide roadshow aiming to persuade workers at some of the country's leading companies to back a merger to create a new 1.2 million-strong super union is set to start.

The Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union and the Manufacturing Science and Finance union are planning to form Britain's second biggest trade union.

General secretaries Sir Ken Jackson and Roger Lyons will make presentations during the shows, which will visit offices and factories until voting closes at the end of March.

Balloting starts on March 12 and the result is expected in early April.

The new, as yet unnamed, union will have the most members at firms including BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, Siemans and Jaguar.

It will have assets of over £100m and an annual income of £65m.

Sir Ken said: "We will be a force to be reckoned with both industrially and politically at home and in Europe."

The new union will have an annual political fund of more than £1.6m.