Radio and Electronic Officers' Union
British trade union
The Radio and Electronic Officers' Union (REOU) was a trade union representing radio operators on British civilian ships.
History
The union was founded in 1921, when the Association of Wireless Telegraphists merged with the Cable and Telegraph Operators' Association, forming the Association of Wireless and Cable Telegraphists. The majority of early members worked for the Marconi Company, Siemens Brothers, or the Radio Communication Company.
The union was successful, and by 1922 it had about 4,500 members, and was a member of the Seafarers' Joint Council. It undertook a strike in 1922, which achieved agreement on a standard pay scale, and another in 1925 in opposition to a pay cut. However, it devoted much of its time to negotiating with the Engineering Employers' Federation.
In 1937, the union renamed itself as the Radio Officers' Union. It affiliated to the Trades Union Congress in 1936, the Officers' (Merchant Navy) Federation in 1940, and the National Maritime Board in 1941.
In 1967, the union lengthened its name to the Radio and Electronic Officers' Union, in light of it also admitting technicians. By this time, it had members in the Merchant Navy, and also on fishing vessels, oil rigs and related onshore industries.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Radio and Electronic Officers' Union” is british trade union. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Radio, Electronic and Officers', not as a finished interpretation.
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This entry incorporates text from “Radio and Electronic Officers' Union” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.