The National and Local Government Officers' Association was a British

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 ...

representing mostly

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...

"white collar" workers. It was formed in 1905 as the National Association of Local Government Officers, and changed its full name in 1952 while retaining its widely used

acronym An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial Letter (alphabet), letter of each wor ...

, NALGO. By the late 1970s it was the largest British white collar trade union, with over 700,000 members. It was one of three unions which combined to form

UNISON Unison (stylised as UNISON) is a Great Britain, British trade union. Along with Unite the Union, Unite, Unison is one of the two largest trade unions in the United Kingdom, with over 1.2 million members who work predominantly in public servic ...

in 1993.

Early history

The National Association of Local Government Officers, or NALGO, was founded in 1905 as an association of local

guilds A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular territory. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradespeople belonging to a professional association. They so ...

of municipal officers. The main impetus came from Herbert Blain (1870–1942), later to become national agent for the Conservative Party. Blain had formed the first local guild in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

in 1896 and, on moving to London, arranged the national conference in 1905 at which NALGO was formed. In 1909, the first full-time General Secretary, Levi Hill (1883–1961), was appointed, and by 1914 NALGO's membership included almost 70% of all British local government officers. Blain and Hill organised NALGO with a national delegate conference and regional and local branch structures. Its first aims were the setting up of a pension scheme; the improvement of the pay, conditions and status of local government officers; the abolition of

nepotism Nepotism is the act of granting an In-group favoritism, advantage, privilege, or position to Kinship, relatives in an occupation or field. These fields can include business, politics, academia, entertainment, sports, religion or health care. In ...

(at the time rife in local government); and the welfare of members and their families. In 1917, a parliamentary committee chaired by J. H. Whitley MP recommended setting up joint committees of employers and workers throughout industry for consultations on pay and working conditions, and in 1919 the first Whitley Council for local government was formed on NALGO's insistence. After a prolonged process of negotiations, NALGO and the employers agreed a national charter of pay scales in local government in 1946. Although Hill had previously remarked that "anything savouring of trade unionism is nausea to the local government officer", NALGO sought a certificate from the Registrar of Friendly Societies confirming its status as a trade union in 1920. Discussion on affiliation to 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 ...

began as early as 1921, however, it would take until 1964 to be agreed. It amalgamated with various smaller unions including the National Association of

Poor Law In English and British history, poor relief refers to government and ecclesiastical action to relieve poverty. Over the centuries, various authorities have needed to decide whose poverty deserves relief and also who should bear the cost of hel ...

Officers in 1930. Membership continued to grow rapidly, reaching some 100,000 by 1940. Levi Hill retired as General Secretary in 1943, and was replaced by John Simonds.

National and Local

With the growth in membership in sectors outside local government such as health, gas and electricity, the union changed its full name in 1952, to the National and Local Government Officers' Association, while still retaining the acronym NALGO. It amalgamated with various smaller unions including the British Gas Staff Association in 1963. It reached 300,000 members by 1964. It finally became a TUC affiliate, after many years of fractious internal argument, in 1964. NALGO Building Society merged with the Leek and Moorlands Building Society in 1960. As the public sector expanded in importance from the 1950s to the 1970s, and British Government legislation such as the Industrial Relations Act 1971 simultaneously sought to curb trade union powers, some parts of the union became more radicalised. NALGO organised its first official strike in Leeds in 1970, and its first national strike, of social workers, was in 1978/79. It also led the way as a campaigning organisation over equal pay and wider equality and international issues. Total membership rose to over 700,000 by 1977, by which time it was by far the largest UK public sector union. After the election of the Thatcher government in 1979, NALGO organised strongly in opposition to many of its policies, in particular

privatisation Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...

, deregulation, and restructuring with the introduction of market mechanisms in local government, education, and the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

. At the same time, at local level in much of the country many members maintained the old idea of NALGO as a staff association, and this explains why many so-called "NALGO" social clubs, sports teams and so on remained popular. NALGO provided a wide range of benefits for its members and opened one of the first holiday camps in Britain, at Croyde Bay in north

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

. Shortly afterwards it built a second, larger camp at Cayton Bay near

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

. This was sold in 1976 but the Croyde Bay holiday centre is still owned and run by NALGO's successor, UNISON. NALGO merged with NUPE (the National Union of Public Employees) and COHSE (the Confederation of Health Service Employees) in 1993 to form

. NALGO Insurance Association was renamed UIA shortly afterwards.Change of Name
Registry of Friendly Societies, 6 August 1993

General Secretaries

*1905: Frank Ginn (Honorary Secretary) *1909: Levi Hill *1943: John Simonds *1945: Haden Corser (acting) *1946: John Warren *1957: Walter Anderson *1973: Geoffrey Drain *1983: John Daly *1990: Alan Jinkinson

Deputy General Secretaries

*1936: John Simonds *1943: Haden Corser *1950: Walter Anderson *1957: Geoffrey Drain *1973: George Newman *1976: Bill Rankin *1982: John Daly *1983: Alan Jinkinson *1990:

Dave Prentis David Prentis, Baron Prentis of Leeds (born 29 May 1948) is a British trade unionist and former General Secretary of UNISON, the United Kingdom's largest trade union. He was originally elected in 2000. He was re-elected in March 2005 with 77% ...

Presidents

*1906: Edward Ralph Pickmere *1907: Homewood Crawford *1924: Arthur P. Johnson *1931: Sam Lord *1932: Fred Marsden *1933: C. G. Brown *1934: Allan Wotherspoon *1935: G. W. Coster *1936: W. E. Lloyd *1937: W. W. Armitage *1938: J. L. Holland *1939: E. J. Stead *1943: Colin A. W. Roberts *1944: Alfred A. Garrard *1945: Frank Henry Harrod *1946: D. J. Parry *1947: Cyril J. Newman *1948: Philip H. Harrold *1949: Ernest A. S. Young *1950: Edward L. Riley *1951: Lewis Bevan *1952: Watson Strother *1953: Thomas Nolan *1954: L. H. Taylor *1955: Philip H. Harrold *1956: John Pepper *1957: Alfred E. Odell *1958: Albert E. Nortrop *1959: Norman W. Bingham *1960: Tom Belton *1961: Raymond Evans *1962: George R. Ashton *1963: Leslie W. G. Hetherington *1964: Charles A. Smallman *1965: Stephen Duncan *1966: Marian W. Curtin *1967: James G. Iles *1968: Edward J. Varley *1969: Tim J. Hutton *1970: Neil McLean *1971: Ellery H. Clayton *1972: Joe Besserman *1973: Jimmy J. Gardner *1974: Ron W. E. Hill *1975: Arthur H. Buckley *1976: Harold S. Corden *1977: Glyn J. Phillips *1978: Edward Alderton *1979: John A. Meek *1980: Peter Morgan *1981: John Allan *1982: Peter Holt *1983: Arthur Steer *1984: Bill Gill *1985: Norrie Steele *1986: Sheila Smith *1987: John Saunders *1988: Bill Seawright *1989: Rita Donaghy *1990: David Stockford *1991: Mike Blick *1992: Ralph Gayton

References

Sources

*Alec Spoor (1967) ''White Collar Union – sixty years of NALGO'' *George Newman (1982) ''Path To Maturity – NALGO 1965-1980'' *Mike Ironside and Roger Seifert (2001) ''Facing Up to Thatcherism: The History of NALGO 1979-93''

External links

A short history of NALGO
on th
Trade Union Ancestors
website. Includes a list of all national presidents, treasurers, general secretaries and executive committee members from 1905 to 1967
Catalogue of the NALGO archives
held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
Catalogue of the NALGO Insurance Association Ltd archives
held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick {{Authority control Defunct trade unions of the United Kingdom 1905 establishments in the United Kingdom Organisations based in the London Borough of Camden Municipal workers' trade unions Trade unions established in 1905 Trade unions disestablished in 1993 Public sector trade unions in the United Kingdom