ABC of Chairmanship

Last updated
A.B.C. of Chairmanship
ABC of Chairmanship.jpg
ABC of Chairmanship
Author Walter Citrine, 1st Baron Citrine
CountryUK
LanguageEnglish
Subject Management
PublisherNCLC Publishing Society Limited
Publication date
1939
Media typeHardcover
Pages284 pp

A.B.C. of Chairmanship by Walter Citrine is considered by many in the Labour and Union movements of the UK to be the definitive book on how meetings should be run and how committees should be managed. [1] [2] [3] [4] It originated as notes for Electrical Trades Union (ETU) activists in the Merseyside area of the UK – they had Liverpool, Birkenhead and Bootle branches – in the 1910s by Citrine who was then chairman of their district committee. [5]

Union meetings were then important places where the terms of employment in the trade were keenly discussed by union activists, news of employment opportunities were shared and some general social life ensued in the pub where they usually met. It was to guide these activist electricians – a very intelligent but sometimes fractious community who tended to be critical of their ETU headquarters officials in Manchester – that Citrine devised the notes, based on parliamentary rules of debate, to ensure the efficient and orderly conduct of the business. So well received were they that the ETU adopted them nationally in its Rule Book in 1914. Over the years, they were revised and adapted to changing circumstances in a union which grew vastly during World War 1. [6]

In 1920, Citrine, who had stood as a Labour parliamentary candidate for the Wallasey seat in the 1918 general election, was encouraged to produce an expanded version of this guide for other unions and the Labour Party, entitled The Labour Chairman. This was published with an introduction by a leading National Union of Railwaymen and TUC figure of that time, J. H. (‘Jimmy’) Thomas. It had considerable influence and became an authoritative source of rulings on all procedural aspects of the conduct of meetings from branch to national levels.

The Labour Chairman book cover from 1920 Citrine The Labour Chairman.png
The Labour Chairman book cover from 1920

It was this book, later updated by Citrine, which was published by the Fabian Society, co-operative society, NCLC and many unions as The ABC of Chairmanship from 1939 onwards. New editions were published regularly until the 1980s and all those whose duty it fell to chair or manage meetings (not just by union and Labour Party officers), saw their well-thumbed copies as ‘their bible’. Alan Johnson MP, former General Secretary of the Communication Workers Union and Home Secretary described Citrine (as it is generally called), as his and all his colleagues’ key guide. [7]

Walter Citrine was a leading British trade unionist of the twentieth century.

Related Research Articles

1926 United Kingdom general strike May 1926 UK labour dispute

The 1926 general strike in the United Kingdom was a general strike that lasted nine days, from 4 to 12 May 1926. It was called by the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in an unsuccessful attempt to force the British government to act to prevent wage reductions and worsening conditions for 1.2 million locked-out coal miners. Some 1.7 million workers went out, especially in transport and heavy industry. The government was prepared, and enlisted middle class volunteers to maintain essential services. There was little violence and the TUC gave up in defeat.

Scottish Trades Union Congress

The Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) is the national trade union centre in Scotland. With 40 affiliated unions as of 2020, the STUC represents over 540,000 trade unionists.

The General Secretary of the TUC is the chief permanent officer of the Trades Union Congress, and a major figurehead in the trade union movement in the United Kingdom.

Walter Citrine, 1st Baron Citrine British trade unionist (1887-1983)

Sir Walter McLennan Citrine, 1st Baron Citrine of Wembley, was one of the leading British and international trade unionists of the twentieth century and a notable public figure. Yet, apart from his renowned guide to the conduct of meetings, ABC of Chairmanship, he has been little spoken of in the history of the labour movement. More recently, labour historians have begun to re-assess Citrine's role.

George Woodcock (trade unionist) British trade union leader

George Woodcock, was a British trade unionist and general secretary of the Trades Union Congress from 1960 to 1969.

Sir Harold Vincent Tewson, was an English trade unionist who served as General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) from 1946 to 1960.

Gemma Tumelty British trade unionist

Gemma Tumelty, is a British Labour Party and Trades Union activist, who was President of the National Union of Students (NUS) from 2006 to 2008. She was the NUS National Secretary from 2005 to 2006, and a member of its National Executive Committee for two years before that.

Fred Bramley British trade unionist

Fred Bramley was the second General Secretary of the British Trade Union Congress (TUC).

Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union

The Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union, known as the EETPU, was a British trade union formed in 1968 as a union for electricians and plumbers, which went through three mergers from 1992 to now be part of Unite the Union.

International Federation of Trade Unions

The International Federation of Trade Unions was an international organization of trade unions, existing between 1919 and 1945. IFTU had its roots in the pre-war IFTU.

Edward L. Poulton British politician

Edward Lawrence Poulton was a British trade unionist.

Trades Union Congress federation of trade unions in England and Wales

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union centre, a federation of trade unions in England and Wales, representing the majority of trade unions. There are 48 affiliated unions, with a total of about 5.5 million members. The current General Secretary is Frances O'Grady.

Labour Representation Committee (1900) British pressure group founded in 1900 as an alliance of socialist organisations and trade unions; origin of the Labour Party

The Labour Representation Committee (LRC) was a pressure group founded in 1900 as an alliance of socialist organisations and trade unions, aimed at increasing representation for labour interests in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Labour Party traces its origin to the LRC's foundation.

Pete Curran Trade unionist and politician

Peter Francis Curran was a British trade unionist and politician.

James Moher

Jim Moher was a national trade union figure with two major unions from 1974 to 2006. In that time, he served in a number of capacities - legal adviser and representative ; senior occupational pensions negotiator; National Legal Secretary; National Balloting Officer, National Political Officer and Employment Tribunal representative panel director. As the CWU's Political Officer, he was at the centre of their very successful political effort to assist Labour win the 1997 general election. He was also involved with the Labour leadership in policy formulation on employment law for government but was disappointed by their failure to reform most of the very one-sided and negative legislation against trade unions of previous Conservative governments. In 1995, his booklet reviewed the history of these laws, entitled, "Trade Unions and the Law - the politics of change on government policies, published by the Institute of Employment Rights, reviewed the history of these laws and made some suggestions for change. He was also a Member of Employment Tribunals in Central London (1989-2016), having held a law degree from University College Cork since 1973.

Electrical Trades Union (United Kingdom) trade union in the United Kingdom

The Electrical Trades Union (ETU) was a trade union representing electricians in the United Kingdom, much of its membership consisting of wiring fitters and telephone engineers.

James Rowan was a British trade union leader.

Ernest William Bussey was a British trade union leader.

John Thomas Byrne was a Scottish trade union leader and anti-communist activist.

The GCHQ trade union ban was a ban on trade union membership of employees at the Government Communications Headquarters in Cheltenham between 1984 and 1997. This was based on the claim by the Conservative government that it undermined national security. It sparked a dispute which became a cause célèbre, one of the most important trade union issues of the 1980s and the second longest continuously fought dispute in British trade union history.

References

  1. ↑ Typical usage see TUC guideline article Archived 2017-10-01 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ↑ Hallas, D Hints on Chairmanship>
  3. ↑ "UnionHome 2012". Archived from the original on 2016-04-15. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  4. ↑ University and College Union advice sheet, 2016
  5. ↑ J.G. Moher, Walter Citrine: a pioneer of industrial cooperation, 2016 in Other Worlds of Labour
  6. ↑ Lloyd, J. (1990). Light and Liberty, the History of the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunication and Plumbing Union. p. 99.
  7. ↑ Alan Johnson, Please Mr Postman – A Memoir, (2014), 245-6, 152-3.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.