Historical Studies in Industrial Relations and the history of the National Union of Public Employees (NUPE)

Historical Studies in Industrial Relations (HSIR) and Liverpool University Press are pleased to make available a series of recent articles published in the journal which explore the history of the National Union of Public Employees (NUPE), one of the fastest growing trade unions in UK history.

These articles will be free to read for a limited time.

We hear from Steve French (Staffordshire University), a member of the journal’s editorial committee, on the significance of these articles and of bringing into the debate the retired NUPE officials who played such an important part in the union’s history.

Cover for Leadership & Democracy: The History of the National Union of Employees Volume 2 1928-1993 by Stephen Williams & R. H. Fryer

Retired trade union officials are being encouraged to link up with Liverpool University Press around a series of articles published in one its academic journals about their former work.

This pioneering initiative will give former full-timers of the National Union of Public Employees (NUPE) access to a number of articles recently published in Historical Studies in Industrial Relations concerning the history and development of the trade union over a century of its existence.

Founded in late Victorian London, NUPE organised workers in public service employment, enjoying marked success in its recruitment of women workers – nurses, care assistants, hospital ancillaries, school meals staff – who previously stood outside the ranks of organised labour. These groups played a major role in a wave of industrial disputes during the 1970s that would culminate in the so-called ‘Winter of Discontent’ of 1979. Parallels with the current industrial action in the public services are only too apparent and have been widely recognised, leading many commentators to highlight the historic failure to deal with low pay amongst these essential and, in the eyes of the general public, most highly valued groups of workers.

Picture of a group of nurses engaging in industrial dispute.

The articles, written by the late Prof. Bob Fryer, whose academic career was closely tied to NUPE, and Stephen Williams, a former NUPE education official, extend the analysis of the union and industrial relations undertaken in their official history (Leadership and Democracy, published in 2011) and answer criticisms of its methodology and conclusions.

Retired NUPE officials will be able to read these articles for the first time and join the debate about the development of what was, for a time, the fastest growing trade union in the UK.