Throwback Thursday: Trade union days
Insurance Post’s Throwback Thursday steps back in time to June 1971 to remind you what was going on this week in insurance history when the Guild of Insurance Officials reflected on its history as the sector’s trade union.
17 June 1971: Guild’s Golden Jubilee
A little after the event, which occurred in 1969, the Guild of Insurance Officials – latterly the Union of Insurance Staffs – published a Golden Jubilee history book.
The tome recalled the days, pre-war, when one general manager who was long since dead told Post’s journalist, thumping the desk for emphasis, that any member of staff who joined the Guild would be instantly dismissed.
Post (time to hang our heads in shame) refused to publish an advertisement for the Guild in 1919, with rival titles Policy and Policy Holders featuring the call for members instead.
By May 1919, the Guild’s membership exceeded 2000.
According to the Guild’s history book, over the decades there were regular battles with insurance companies over salaries and conditions generally.
“Claims against dismissal, loss of status or wrongful grading; claims for compensation for enforced early retirement through illness or domestic trouble, or for holiday entitlement on leaving the employer’s service; claims for references, or for sympathetic consideration in cases of prolonged illness,” were all typical, according to the book.
Sobering reading for those who think things were better in the past.
The union later became part of the Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs, which ceased to exist in 1988.
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