The Association of Professional, Executive, Clerical and Computer Staff (APEX) was a
Britishtrade union which represented
clerical and
administrative employees.
History
The Clerks Union was formed in 1890 and later was renamed as the National Union of Clerks. Then, following rapid growth and amalgamation with several other unions, the name was again changed to the National Union of Clerks and Administrative Workers (NUCAW) with a membership of around 40,000.
The union changed its name to the Association of Professional, Executive, Clerical and Computer Staff (APEX) in 1972. It was the union at the centre of the
Grunwick dispute in the 1970s.
APEX, like its predecessors, was an
affiliated trade union of the British
Labour Party and was a key influence on the right-wing of the Party, particularly as, until 1972, it enforced a rule preventing
communists from holding positions in the union. Its relations with other unions were often difficult, as it competed not only with the ASTMS for members, but also with the
National Union of Bank Employees and various
general unions. In particular, a dispute over members at
General Accident was referred to the
Trades Union Congress Disputes Committee and the fall-out led to APEX's general secretary,
Roy Grantham, failing to win re-election to the
General Council of the TUC.[1]
In 1989 APEX merged with the
GMB trade union and now exists as a section within the GMB.
Election results
The union sponsored numerous
Labour Party candidates, many of whom were elected:
^
abcJürgen Hoffman, Marcus Kahmann and Jeremy Waddington, A Comparison of the Trade Union Merger Process in Britain and Germany, p. 58.
^Hughes, Fred (1953). By Hand and Brain. London: Lawrence and Wishart.
^Labour Party, Report of the Forty-Fifth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp. 232–248.
^
ab"List of Parliamentary Labour candidates and election results, February 23rd, 1950". Report of the Forty-Ninth Annual Conference of the Labour Party: 179–198. 1950.
^"List of Parliamentary Labour candidates and election results, 25th October, 1951". Report of the Fiftieth Annual Conference of the Labour Party: 184–203. 1951.
^
abLabour Party, Report of the Fifty-Fourth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp. 255–275.
^
abLabour Party, Report of the Fifty-Eighth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp. 179–201.
^
abcdLabour Party, Report of the Sixty-Third Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp. 158–180.
^
abcdLabour Party, Report of the Sixty-Fifth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp. 308–330.
^
abcLabour Party, Report of the Sixty-Ninth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp. 289–312.
^
abcdefLabour Party, Report of the Seventy-Third Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp. 371–390.
^
abcdefLabour Party, Report of the Seventy-Third Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp. 391–411.
^
abcdefLabour Party, Report of the Seventy-Eighth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp. 406–431.
^
abcGeneral Election Guide. BBC Data Publications. 1983.
ISBN094635815X.