{{short description|Former trade union of the United Kingdom}} {{Infobox union | name = CSU | location = United Kingdom | affiliations = Trades Union Congress, CCSU | num_members = 43,513 (1982)<ref name="tuh82">{{cite book|last1=Marsh|first1=Arthur|title=Trade Union Handbook|edition=3|date=1984|publisher=Gower|location=Aldershot|isbn=0566024268|pages=159–160}}</ref> | full_name = Civil Service Union | image = | founded = 1917 | dissolved = 1988 | merged_into = National Union of Civil and Public Servants | publication = ''The Whip''<ref name="tuh82" /> | headquarters = 5 Praed Street, London<ref name="tuh82" /> | key_people = | footnotes = }}
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'''.<ref name="mru">{{cite web|url=http://dscalm.warwick.ac.uk/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=Document.tcl&dsqItem=CSU.pdf|title=Records of the Civil Service Union|publisher=Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick|date=9 June 2009|access-date=19 April 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304123234/http://dscalm.warwick.ac.uk/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=Document.tcl&dsqItem=CSU.pdf|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="tree">{{cite web |url=http://www.unionancestors.co.uk/Images/PCSFamTree.pdf |title=Trade union family trees - Public and Commercial Services Union |date=23 September 2007 |publisher=Trade Union Ancestors |access-date=26 September 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101217222758/http://www.unionancestors.co.uk/Images/PCSFamTree.pdf |archive-date=17 December 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref> 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.<ref name=Lowe3>{{cite book |last=Lowe |first=Rodney |title=The Official History of the British Civil Service: Reforming the |volume=1, The Fulton Years, 1966-1981 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VCxWjwCNJE0C |access-date=19 April 2013 |year=2011 |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon |isbn=0-203-83155-1 |page=283}}</ref> The CSU also supported introducing a closed shop policy within the civil service.<ref name=Lowe4>{{cite book |last=Lowe |first=Rodney |title=The Official History of the British Civil Service: Reforming the |volume=1, The Fulton Years, 1966-1981 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VCxWjwCNJE0C |access-date=19 April 2013 |year=2011 |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon |isbn=0-203-83155-1 |page=296}}</ref> By the late 1970s the CSU had 46,827 members, of whom 45,732 worked in the civil service.<ref name=Lowe>{{cite book |last=Lowe |first=Rodney |title=The Official History of the British Civil Service: Reforming the |volume=1, The Fulton Years, 1966-1981 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VCxWjwCNJE0C |access-date=19 April 2013 |year=2011 |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon |isbn=0-203-83155-1 |page=284}}</ref> In January 1988 the union joined with the Society of Civil and Public Servants to form the National Union of Civil and Public Servants.<ref name="tree"/>
==Leadership== ===General Secretaries=== :1933: Dick Gifford<ref name="edwards">{{cite book |last1=Edwards |first1=Kathleen L. |title=The Story of the Civil Service Union |date=1975 |publisher=George Allen and Unwin |location=London}}</ref> :1943: Victor Carvell<ref name="edwards" /> :1963: John Vickers<ref name=Lowe2>{{cite book |last=Lowe |first=Rodney |title=The Official History of the British Civil Service: Reforming the |volume=1, The Fulton Years, 1966-1981 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VCxWjwCNJE0C |access-date=19 April 2013 |year=2011 |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon |isbn=0-203-83155-1 |page=287}}</ref> :1977: Les Moody :1982: John Sheldon<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kcl.ac.uk/innovation/groups/ich/witness/archives/PDFfiles/civilservicereforms.pdf|title=The Civil Service Reforms of the 1980s|editor1-first=Michael|editor1-last=Kandiah|editor2-first=Rodney|editor2-last=Lowe|publisher=Centre for Contemporary British History |year=2007|page=22}}</ref>
===Deputy General Secretaries=== :1944: Robert Anderson<ref name="edwards" /> :1953: ''Vacant''<ref name="edwards" /> :1954: Zed Smith<ref name="edwards" /> :1960: Jon Vickers<ref name="edwards" /> :1962: Les Moody<ref name="edwards" /> :1978: John Sheldon<ref name="edwards" /> :1982:
===Presidents=== :1933: W. Ewart Llewellyn<ref name="edwards" /> :1938: George McDouall<ref name="edwards" /> :1945: Harold Newton<ref name="edwards" /> :1967: Monty Rose<ref name="edwards" /> :1984: Margaret Morrison<ref name="edwards" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[https://mrc.epexio.com/records/CSU Catalogue of the CSU archives], held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
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Category:Trade unions established in 1917 Category:Trade unions disestablished in 1988 Category:Defunct trade unions of the United Kingdom Category:Civil service trade unions Category:1917 establishments in the United Kingdom Category:1988 disestablishments in the United Kingdom