The Confederation of Health Service Employees (COHSE) was a United Kingdom trade union representing workers primarily in the National Health Service.
History The union was founded in 1946 with the merger of the Mental Hospital and Institutional Workers Union and the Hospital and Welfare Services Union, with the aim of having one union to represent workers in the National Health Service on its formation.
In 1993, COHSE merged with two other trade unions - NUPE (the National Union of Public Employees) and NALGO (the National and Local Government Officers Association ) - to form UNISON, the largest public sector trade union in the UK.
Major COHSE campaigns 1948: Nursing Students Pay 1959: Unofficial Overtime ban 1962: Nurses Pay (Lets twist again) 1972–73: Ancillary Pay strikes (Low pay) 1974: Nurses Pay (Halsbury) 1974?: Private Patients Dispute 1979: Public Sector Pay (Winter of Discontent) 1982: NHS Staff Pay campaign (12%claim) 1988: Nurses Pay (Clinical Grading) 1989–1990: Ambulance Dispute
Election results The union sponsored Labour Party candidates at each Parliamentary election from 1979.
Election Constituency Candidate Votes Percentage Position 1979 general election Dudley West 29,109 49.1 2Labour Party, Report of the Seventy-Eighth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp. 406–431. Ealing North 26,044 43.6 2 Fife Central 27,619 58.0 1 Loughborough 24,589 39.6 2 Oldham West 17,802 52.4 1 Rhondda 38,007 75.2 1 1983 general election Central Fife 17,008 43.1 1 Oldham West 17,690 44.1 1 Rhondda 29,448 61.7 1 1987 general election Oldham West 20,291 49.4 1 Redcar 22,824 47.3 1 Rhondda 35,015 73.4 1 Stoke-on-Trent North 25,459 47.1 1 Workington 24,019 52.4 1 1992 general election Falkirk West 19,162 49.8 1The Times Guide to the House of Commons April 1992, pp. 32–249. Oldham West 21,580 52.8 1 Redcar 27,184 56.0 1 Rhondda 34,243 74.5 1 Stoke-on-Trent North 30,464 56.7 1 Wallasey 26,531 48.9 1 Workington 26,719 56.9 1
Leadership General Secretaries 1946: George Gibson 1947: Cliff Comer 1953: Jack Waite 1958: Jack Jepson 1967: Dick Akers 1969: Frank Lynch 1974: Albert Spanswick 1983: David Williams 1987: Hector MacKenzie
Presidents 1946: Claude Bartlett 1962: Ron Farmer 1965: Bob Vickerstaff 1976: Eric Wilson 1982: Sid Ambler 1987: Colin Robinson
References
External links COHSE Blog Catalogue of the COHSE archives, held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick