Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs


The Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs was a British trade union which existed between 1969 and 1988.

History

The ASTMS was created in 1969 when ASSET merged with the AScW under the leadership of joint general secretaries: Clive Jenkins of ASSET and John Dutton of the AScW.
ASSET, the larger of the two unions, began as the National Foremen's Association and chiefly represented supervisors in metal working and transport. Covering both the public and private sectors, AScW largely represented laboratory and technical workers in universities, the National Health Service and in chemical and metal manufacturing. The AScW could name half-a-dozen Nobel prize winners amongst its membership.
By the end of 1970 Clive Jenkins had become sole general secretary of the union. With advertising and personal appearances on television he kept ASTMS in the public's eye, within 15 years the union had expanded from 65,000 members to a figure approaching 500,000. This was achieved both by individual recruitment and by merging with small unions and staff associations, such as the Managers' and Overlookers' Society, Medical Practitioners' Union, the United Commercial Travellers' Association of Great Britain and Ireland, the Union of Insurance Staffs and the Prudential Assurance Staff Association. The number of mergers was eventually to exceed 30.
In 1976 trade union activist Sheila McKechnie was appointed as the full-time Health and Safety Director of ASTMS. McKechnie remained with ASTMS until her appointment as Chief Executive of the homeless charity Shelter.
In 1988 ASTMS merged with TASS, the federated white collar section of the AUEW to form MSF. On 1 January 2002 MSF was to amalgamate with the AEEU to form Amicus.
On 1 May 2007 Amicus merged with the TGWU to form Unite, which is the biggest trade union in the UK.

Amalgamations

A large number of smaller unions merged into the ASTMS: