The National and Local Government Officers' Association was a British trade union representing mostly local government "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 (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 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 TUC affiliate, after many years of fractious internal argument, in 1964.

NALGO Building Society merged with the Leek and Moorlands Building Society in 1960.Mergers & Name Changes Extract from BSA Yearbook (pp. 139, 145), The Building Societies Association, 2021/22

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 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 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 Bay in north Devon. Shortly afterwards it built a second, larger camp at Cayton Bay near 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 shortly afterwards.Change of Name Registry of Friendly Societies, 6 August 1993

General Secretaries 1905: Frank Ginn (Honorary Secretary) 1909: Levi Hill 1943: John Simonds 1945: Haden Corser (acting) 1946: John Warren 1957: Walter Anderson 1973: Geoffrey Drain 1983: 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

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

References

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

A short history of NALGO on the Trade Union Ancestors website. Includes a list of all national presidents, treasurers, general secretaries and executive committee members from 1905 to 1967 Obituary of Geoffrey Drain Catalogue of the NALGO archives, held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick Catalogue of the NALGO Insurance Association Ltd archives, held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick