Serving the Public – Building the Union NUPE 1889-1958 V1

NUPE is one of the largest British trade unions, with a membership running into many hundreds of thousands, yet although today every single member of society benefits from the work of public employees, there can be few who are aware of the origins of this great union.

Serving the Public - Building the Union tells the story of the early years of the organisation of municipal workers: from the small local organisations of the late nineteenth century to the establishment of NUPE in 1928. Based originally in the London area but soon growing beyond the capital, these unions took up the fight against appalling wages and conditions which in some cases were forced upon workers by private contractors undertaking public work.

By insisting that local authorities should be 'model employers', the unions worked consistently for progressive and labour representation and made a significant contribution to the growth of labour's political movement. These struggles, which have been neglected by historians, are reconstructed in Serving the Public - Building the Union, the first volume of the history of the NUPE.