The ISU is a British trade union representing representing staff in the Borders, Customs and Immigration functions of the Home Office. The union was founded in 1981 as the Immigration Service Union. It was a split from the

Society of Civil and Public Servants The Society of Civil and Public Servants (SCPS) was a trade union representing middle-ranking civil servants in the United Kingdom. The union was founded in 1918 as the Society of Civil Servants (SCS), to represent intermediate class clerks. The ...

(SCPS),Steve Cohen, ''Immigration Controls, the Family and the Welfare State'', p.321 founded in protest at the SCPS calling for the repeal of the

Immigration Act 1971 The Immigration Act 1971c 77 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning immigration and nearly entirely remaking the field of British immigration law. The Act, as with the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962, and that of 1968, r ...

.Steve Cohen, ''Deportation is Freedom!'', p.130 The ISU is politically independent and not a member of the

Trades Union Congress The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union centre, a federation of trade unions in England and Wales, representing the majority of trade unions. There are 48 affiliated unions, with a total of about 5.5 million members. Frances O ...

PCS A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or techn ...

, the SCPS's successor, sees ISU as a

yellow union A company or "yellow" union is a worker organization which is dominated or unduly influenced by an employer, and is therefore not an independent trade union. Company unions are contrary to international labour law (see ILO Convention 98, Article 2 ...

, as some senior managers encouraged its splitting off, although its independence has been certified by the

Certification Officer The Trades Union Certification Officer was established in the United Kingdom by Act of Parliament in 1975. They head the Certification Office for Trade Unions and Employers' Associations. Responsibilities The Certification Officer is responsible f ...

.John B. Smethurst and Peter Carter, ''Historical Directory of Trade Unions'', vol.6, p.450 Membership of the union reached 4,263 in 2006, but, in common with all Civil Service unions, fell after the ending of payroll wage check-off (subscriptions automatically deducted where workers have ticked to confirm they wish to be in any recognised union to their employer) in 2015. It declined to 3,018 in that year. In 2020, membership stood at 3,043. The ISU does not generally take

industrial action Industrial action (British English) or job action (American English) is a temporary show of dissatisfaction by employees—especially a strike or slowdown or working to rule—to protest against bad working conditions or low pay and to increa ...

. In 2012, ISU members followed other public sector unions in agreeing to strike against changes to civil service pensions. This vote resulted in a rapid climbdown on the pension cuts plans. Similarly, planned heavy-handed tactics to stem irregular, dangerous, very small vessel immigration have also been the subject of polls for some form of industrial action in 2022.

General Secretaries

:1981: P. J. Taylor :1997: Martin Slade :2003: Peter Stowe :2010: Paul Duckhouse :2013: Lucy Moreton :2019: Mark Gribbin

References

{{reflist Trade unions established in 1981 Trade unions in the United Kingdom Trade unions based in Essex