View source for National and Local Government Officers' Association

{{short description|Former trade union of the United Kingdom}}
{{Infobox organization
|name         =National and Local Government Officers' Association
|location_country=[[United Kingdom]]
|affiliation  =[[Trades Union Congress|TUC]] (from 1965)
|members      =739,000 (1981)<ref>Mike Ironside and Roger V. Seifert, ''Facing Up to Thatcherism: The History of NALGO, 1979–1993'', p.162</ref>
|image        =[[File:Nalgo.jpg]]
|founded      =1905
|dissolved    =1993
|merged       =[[Unison (trade union)|Unison]]
|headquarters =1 Mabledon Place,<br>[[London]] WC1H 9AJ
|publication  = ''Public Service''<ref name="tuh82">{{cite book|last1=Marsh|first1=Arthur|title=Trade Union Handbook|edition=3|date=1984|publisher=Gower|location=Aldershot|isbn=0566024268|pages=270&ndash;272}}</ref>
|key_people   =
|footnotes    =
}}
The '''National and Local Government Officers' Association''' was a British [[trade union]] representing mostly [[local government]] [[White-collar workers|"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]], '''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]] in 1993.
==Early history==
The National Association of Local Government Officers, or NALGO, was founded in 1905 as an association of local [[guilds]] 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]] 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 (trade unionist)|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]] (at the time rife in local government); and the welfare of members and their families.
In 1917, a parliamentary committee chaired by [[John Henry Whitley|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]] 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]] 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 [[Trades Union Congress|TUC]] affiliate, after many years of fractious internal argument, in 1964.
NALGO Building Society merged with the [[Britannia Building Society|Leek and Moorlands Building Society]] in 1960.<ref>[https://www.bsa.org.uk/BSA/files/00/00d05e4d-a3e3-40c4-8753-a95a0f11ef45.pdf Mergers & Name Changes] Extract from BSA Yearbook (pp. 139, 145), The Building Societies Association, 2021/22</ref>
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 action|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 [[Margaret Thatcher|Thatcher]] government in 1979, NALGO organised strongly in opposition to many of its policies, in particular [[privatisation]], deregulation, and restructuring with the introduction of market mechanisms in local government, education, and the [[National Health Service]].
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|Croyde Bay]] in north [[Devon]]. Shortly afterwards it built a second, [[NALGO Cayton Bay Holiday Centre|larger camp]] at [[Cayton|Cayton Bay]] near [[Scarborough, North Yorkshire|Scarborough]]. 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 [[UNISON]]. NALGO Insurance Association was renamed [[UIA Mutual|UIA]] shortly afterwards.<ref>[https://mutuals.fca.org.uk/Documents/Download/468973 Change of Name] Registry of Friendly Societies, 6 August 1993</ref>
==General Secretaries==
*1905: Frank Ginn  <small>(Honorary Secretary)</small>
*1909: [[Levi Hill (trade unionist)|Levi Hill]]
*1943: [[John Simonds (trade unionist)|John Simonds]]
*1945: Haden Corser (acting)
*1946: [[John Warren (trade unionist)|John Warren]]
*1957: [[Walter Anderson (trade unionist)|Walter Anderson]]
*1973: [[Geoffrey Drain (trade unionist)|Geoffrey Drain]]
*1983: [[John Daly (trade unionist)|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]]
==Presidents==
{{colbegin}}
*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
{{colend}}
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==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==
{{Portal|Organized labour}}
*[http://www.unionancestors.co.uk/NALGO.htm A short history of NALGO] on the [http://www.unionancestors.co.uk Trade Union Ancestors] website. Includes a list of all national presidents, treasurers, general secretaries and executive committee members from 1905 to 1967
*[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-geoffrey-drain-1453676.html Obituary of Geoffrey Drain]
*[https://mrc.epexio.com/records/NLG Catalogue of the NALGO archives], held at the [[Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick]]
*[https://mrc.epexio.com/records/LOG Catalogue of the NALGO Insurance Association Ltd archives], held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Defunct trade unions of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:1905 establishments in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Organisations based in the London Borough of Camden]]
[[Category:Municipal workers' trade unions]]
[[Category:Trade unions established in 1905]]
[[Category:Trade unions disestablished in 1993]]
[[Category:Public sector trade unions in the United Kingdom]]