Association of Professional, Executive, Clerical and Computer Staff

The Association of Professional, Executive, Clerical and Computer Staff (APEX) was a British trade union which was formed in 1890 as the Clerks Union and later was renamed as the National Union of Clerks. Then, following rapid growth and amalgamation with several other unions, the name was again changed to The National Union of Clerks and Administrative Workers (NUCAW) with a membership of around 40,000.

In 1940 the Association of Women Clerks and Secretaries transferred into NUCAW and the union was renamed the Clerical and Administrative Workers Union. The union organised in the white-collar sector in the City of London and across the country, and had particular success in recruiting in the engineering industry. In the 1960s its membership grew rapidly.

It changed its name to the Association of Professional, Executive, Clerical and Computer Staff (APEX) in 1972. It was the union at the centre of the Grunwick dispute in the 1970s.

APEX, like its predecessors, was an affiliated trade union of the British Labour Party from 1907 on and was a key influence on the right-wing of the Party, particularly as it enforced a rule preventing communists from holding positions in the union until 1972.

In 1989 APEX merged with the GMB trade union and now exists as a section within the GMB. Its final general secretary from 1971 until 1989 was Roy Grantham.

General Secretaries

1909: Herbert Henry Elvin

1941: Fred Woods

1956: Anne Godwin

1963: Henry Chapman

1971: Roy Grantham

External links

• GMB webpage on its history and that of its precursor unions
• Catalogue of the APEX archives, held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick