Civil Service Union

The Civil Service Union (CSU) was a trade union in the United Kingdom which existed between 1917 and 1988. It represented lower-paid staff within the British Civil Service such as cleaners and messengers.

History

The union was formed in 1917 as the Association of Government Messengers and Attendants and later became the Government Minor and Manipulative Grades Association. The union primarily represented staff who worked in the Civil Service, but also in other public organisations.

The CSU was seen as being more militant than other unions within the civil service and was, along with the Civil and Public Services Association, the first to adopt a strike policy backed by a fighting fund, in 1969. The CSU also supported introducing a closed shop policy within the civil service. By the late 1970s the CSU had 46,827 members, of whom 45,732 worked in the civil service. In January 1988 the union joined with the Society of Civil and Public Servants to form the National Union of Civil and Public Servants.

Leadership

General Secretaries

1933: Dick Gifford

1943: Victor Carvell

1963: John Vickers

1977: Les Moody

1982: John Sheldon

Deputy General Secretaries

1944: Robert Anderson

1953: Vacant

1954: Zed Smith

1960: Jon Vickers

1962: Les Moody

1978: John Sheldon

1982:

Presidents

1933: W. Ewart Llewellyn

1938: George McDouall

1945: Harold Newton

1967: Monty Rose

1984: Margaret Morrison