The Civil and Public Services Association (CPSA) was a

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, representing

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

History

The union was founded in 1921, when the Civil Service Clerical Union and the Clerical Officers' Association merged to form the Civil Service Clerical Association (CSCA). It affiliated with the

Trades Union Congress The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union center, national trade union centre, a federation of trade unions that collectively represent most unionised workers in England and Wales. There are 48 affiliated unions with a total of ...

(TUC) and the Labour Party and had around 16,000 members. Its Dublin branch left the following year, to form the

Civil and Public Services Union The Civil and Public Services Union (CPSU) was an Republic of Ireland, Irish trade union for clerical and administrative grades in the civil service, the wider public sector and the private sector.John B. Smethurst and Peter Carter, ''Historical ...

. Following the

1926 United Kingdom general strike The 1926 general strike in the United Kingdom was a general strike that lasted nine days, from 4 to 12 May 1926. It was called by the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in an unsuccessful attempt to force the British government ...

, the Trade Disputes and Trade Unions Act 1927 was passed, requiring government employees to disaffiliate from political parties and trades union confederations, compelling the union to leave the Labour Party and the TUC. It rejoined the TUC in 1946. In 1969, the union renamed itself the Civil and Public Services Association. In 1973, the Ministry of Labour Staff Association joined the CPSA, then the Court Officers Association joined in 1974. In 1980, the CPSA published a history of its first 75 years, ''From Humble Petition to Militant Action''. In 1985, the union's Postal and Telecommunications Group left to merge with the Post Office Engineering Union, forming the National Communications Union. The CPSA merged with the Public Services, Tax and Commerce Union in 1998, forming the Public and Commercial Services Union.

1986 General Secretary Election

Militant The English word ''militant'' is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in "militant reformers". It comes from the 15th century Lat ...

supporter John Macreadie initially won the ballot. However, the election was blocked and the courts ordered it to be re-run, with John Ellis receiving 42,000 votes, Macreadie 31,000, and the Broad Left '84 candidate, backed by the Communist Party, 13,000.

Leadership

General Secretaries

:1921: William Brown :1942: Len White :1955: George Green :1963: Len Wines :1967: Bill Kendall :1976: Ken Thomas :1982:

Alistair Graham Sir John Alistair Graham (born 6 August 1942) is a British trade unionist who was Chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life from 2003 until April 2007. He was born in Northumberland, and was educated at the Royal Grammar School, N ...

:1986: John Ellis :1992: Barry Reamsbottom

Presidents

:1972: Len Lever :1975: Kate Losinska :1976: Len Lever :1979: Kate Losinska :1982: Kevin Roddy :1983: Kate Losinska :1986: Marion Chambers

References

External links

Catalogue of the CPSA archives
held at the

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick The Modern Records Centre (MRC) is the specialist archive service of the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, located adjacent to the Central Campus Library. It was established in October 1973 and holds the world's largest archive collect ...

{{Authority control Trade unions established in 1921 Trade unions disestablished in 1998 Defunct trade unions of the United Kingdom Civil service trade unions 1921 establishments in the United Kingdom