# Civil Service Union

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The **Civil Service Union** (**CSU**) was a [trade union](/source/Trade_union) in the United Kingdom which existed between 1917 and 1988. It represented lower-paid staff within the [British Civil Service](/source/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**.[1][2] The union primarily represented staff who worked in the [Civil Service](/source/Civil_Service_(United_Kingdom)), 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](/source/Civil_and_Public_Services_Association), the first to adopt a strike policy backed by a fighting fund, in 1969.[3] The CSU also supported introducing a [closed shop](/source/Closed_shop) policy within the civil service.[4] By the late 1970s the CSU had 46,827 members, of whom 45,732 worked in the civil service.[5] In January 1988 the union joined with the [Society of Civil and Public Servants](/source/Society_of_Civil_and_Public_Servants) to form the [National Union of Civil and Public Servants](/source/National_Union_of_Civil_and_Public_Servants).[2]

## Leadership

### General Secretaries

- 1933: Dick Gifford[6]
- 1943: Victor Carvell[6]
- 1963: [John Vickers](/source/Jon_Vickers_(trade_unionist))[7]
- 1977: Les Moody
- 1982: [John Sheldon](/source/John_Sheldon_(trade_unionist))[8]

### Deputy General Secretaries

- 1944: Robert Anderson[6]
- 1953: *Vacant*[6]
- 1954: Zed Smith[6]
- 1960: [Jon Vickers](/source/Jon_Vickers_(trade_unionist))[6]
- 1962: Les Moody[6]
- 1978: [John Sheldon](/source/John_Sheldon_(trade_unionist))[6]
- 1982:

### Presidents

- 1933: W. Ewart Llewellyn[6]
- 1938: George McDouall[6]
- 1945: Harold Newton[6]
- 1967: Monty Rose[6]
- 1984: Margaret Morrison[6]

## References

1. ["Records of the Civil Service Union"](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). Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick. 9 June 2009. Archived from [the original](http://dscalm.warwick.ac.uk/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=Document.tcl&dsqItem=CSU.pdf) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 19 April 2013.

1. ["Trade union family trees - Public and Commercial Services Union"](https://web.archive.org/web/20101217222758/http://www.unionancestors.co.uk/Images/PCSFamTree.pdf). Trade Union Ancestors. 23 September 2007. Archived from [the original](http://www.unionancestors.co.uk/Images/PCSFamTree.pdf) on 17 December 2010. Retrieved 26 September 2010.

1. Lowe, Rodney (2011). [*The Official History of the British Civil Service: Reforming the*](https://books.google.com/books?id=VCxWjwCNJE0C). Vol. 1, The Fulton Years, 1966-1981. Abingdon: Routledge. p. 283. ISBN 0-203-83155-1. Retrieved 19 April 2013.

1. Lowe, Rodney (2011). [*The Official History of the British Civil Service: Reforming the*](https://books.google.com/books?id=VCxWjwCNJE0C). Vol. 1, The Fulton Years, 1966-1981. Abingdon: [Routledge](/source/Routledge). p. 296. ISBN 0-203-83155-1. Retrieved 19 April 2013.

1. Lowe, Rodney (2011). [*The Official History of the British Civil Service: Reforming the*](https://books.google.com/books?id=VCxWjwCNJE0C). Vol. 1, The Fulton Years, 1966-1981. Abingdon: [Routledge](/source/Routledge). p. 284. ISBN 0-203-83155-1. Retrieved 19 April 2013.

1. Edwards, Kathleen L. (1975). *The Story of the Civil Service Union*. London: George Allen and Unwin.

1. Lowe, Rodney (2011). [*The Official History of the British Civil Service: Reforming the*](https://books.google.com/books?id=VCxWjwCNJE0C). Vol. 1, The Fulton Years, 1966-1981. Abingdon: Routledge. p. 287. ISBN 0-203-83155-1. Retrieved 19 April 2013.

1. ["The Civil Service Reforms of the 1980s"](http://www.kcl.ac.uk/innovation/groups/ich/witness/archives/PDFfiles/civilservicereforms.pdf). Centre for Contemporary British History. 2007. p. 22.

## External links

- [Catalogue of the CSU archives](https://mrc.epexio.com/records/CSU), held at the [Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick](/source/Modern_Records_Centre,_University_of_Warwick)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Civil Service Union](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Service_Union) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Service_Union?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.