Confederation of Health Service Employees

The Confederation of Health Service Employees (COHSE) was a United Kingdom trade union representing workers primarily in the National Health Service.

Confederation of Health Service Employees
Merged intoUnison
Founded1946
Dissolved1993
HeadquartersGlen House, High Street, Banstead[1]
Location
Members
216,000 (1980)[2]
PublicationHealth Services[1]
AffiliationsTUC, Labour

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.

ElectionConstituencyCandidateVotesPercentagePosition
1979 general electionDudley WestMike Hartley-Brewer29,10949.12[3]
Ealing NorthWilliam Molloy26,04443.62[3]
Fife CentralWillie Hamilton27,61958.01[3]
LoughboroughJohn Cronin24,58939.62[3]
Oldham WestMichael Meacher17,80252.41[3]
RhonddaAlec Jones38,00775.21[3]
1983 general electionCentral FifeWillie Hamilton17,00843.11
Oldham WestMichael Meacher17,69044.11
RhonddaAllan Rogers29,44861.71
1987 general electionOldham WestMichael Meacher20,29149.41
RedcarMo Mowlam22,82447.31
RhonddaAllan Rogers35,01573.41
Stoke-on-Trent NorthJoan Walley25,45947.11
WorkingtonDale Campbell-Savours24,01952.41
1992 general electionFalkirk WestDennis Canavan19,16249.81[4]
Oldham WestMichael Meacher21,58052.81[4]
RedcarMo Mowlam27,18456.01[4]
RhonddaAllan Rogers34,24374.51[4]
Stoke-on-Trent NorthJoan Walley30,46456.71[4]
WallaseyAngela Eagle26,53148.91[4]
WorkingtonDale Campbell-Savours26,71956.91[4]

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

  1. Marsh, Arthur (1984). Trade Union Handbook (3 ed.). Aldershot: Gower. p. 237. ISBN 0566024268.
  2. David Farnham, Employee Relations in Context, p. 268.
  3. Labour Party, Report of the Seventy-Eighth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp. 406–431.
  4. The Times Guide to the House of Commons April 1992, pp. 32–249.
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