Prudential Staff Union

The Prudential Staff Union was a trade union representing workers at the Prudential insurance company, in the United Kingdom. The only union of insurance workers to affiliate to the Labour Party, it was briefly represented on its National Executive Committee, and for a time sponsored a Member of Parliament.

Prudential Staff Union

Founded	October 1909
Date dissolved	31 December 1984
Merged into	National Union of Insurance Workers
Members	6,677 (1925)[1]
Journal	Prudential Staff Gazette[2]
Head union	National Union of Insurance Workers (from 1964)[1]
Affiliation	Labour Party, NFIW
Office location	14-17 Holborn Hall, Grays Inn Road, London
Country	United Kingdom

History

In the 1900s, many staff at the Prudential were represented by the National Association of Prudential Assurance Agents (NAPAA). It was led by socialist activists and frequently came into conflict with the company, particularly in its calls for a Charter of Rights for employees. The Prudential Staff Federation was founded in October 1909 as a more moderate rival union. It claimed that the NAPAA was undemocratic, and that it excluded staff other than agents from membership. In contrast, it admitted even superintendents into membership, and called for workers to help the company be more prosperous, an approach strongly favoured by the company's management.[3]

H. Birnage served as general secretary for the first few years, then in 1914 the union appointed Edward Timothy Palmer as his replacement.[2][4] The federation registered as a trade union in 1915, at which time it had 3,968 members.[1]

Initially named the Prudential Staff Federation, the union became the "Prudential Staff Union" in the early 1920s. It affiliated to the Labour Party, and sponsored Palmer as a candidate in Greenwich in each general election from 1922 to 1929. Palmer won the seat in 1923, and again in 1929. At the 1931 UK general election, the union decided no longer to financially support his candidacy, leaving him to try to fundraise his own expenses, and he lost the seat.[5] Instead, in 1931, much of the union's funds were used to support the successful appeal of its member William Herbert Wallace, who had been imprisoned on charges of murdering his wife.[3]

By the 1940s, Thomas Scrafton was the union's secretary. He was elected to the Labour Party's National Executive Committee (NEC) in 1945, when James Walker, a sitting member, died. He held his seat in 1946, but stood down the following year.[6]

The union was affiliated to the National Federation of Insurance Workers and, from 1964, to its successor, the National Union of Insurance Workers (NUIW). It was renamed as the National Union of Insurance Workers (Prudential Section), but retained a high level of autonomy until 1984, when it decided to fully merge into the NUIW.[1]

Election results

Election	Constituency	Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Position
1922 general election	Greenwich	Edward Timothy Palmer	10,860	39.1	2[7]
1923 general election	Greenwich	Edward Timothy Palmer	12,314	42.7	1[5]
1924 general election	Greenwich	Edward Timothy Palmer	17,409	48.5	2[5]
1929 general election	Greenwich	Edward Timothy Palmer	20,328	46.3	1[5]

General Secretaries

1909: H. Birnage

1914: Edward Timothy Palmer

1927: Edward Timothy Palmer and William Thomas Brown

1929: William Thomas Brown

1939: Thomas Scrafton

1964: Ernest Lorenz

1965:

1983: Ken Perry

References

1. Marsh, Arthur Ivor; Smethurst, John B. (2006). Historical Directory of Trade Unions. 5. Aldershot: Ashgate. pp. 304-312. ISBN 085967990X.
2. The Labour Who's Who. London: The Labour Publishing Company. 1924. pp. 162–163.
3. Dennett, Laurie (1998). A Sense of Security: 150 Years of Prudential. Granta Editions. pp. 177, 257. ISBN 185757060X.
4. Stenton, Michael; Lees, Stephen (1981). Who's Who of British Members of Parliament. III. Harvester Press. p. 273.
5. Benney, Mark; Gray, E. P.; Pear, R. H. (1956). How People Vote: A Study of Electoral Behaviour in Greenwich. Routledge. p. 56.
6. Harrison, Martin (1960). Trade Unions and the Labour Party since 1945. London: George Allen & Unwin. p. 307-314.
7. "Appendix III: List of sanctioned candidates, June, 1922". Report of the Twenty-second Annual Conference of the Labour Party: 116–126. 1922.. Note that this list is of the sanctioned candidates as of June 1922, and there were some changes between this date and the general election.