MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

elected members of both unions went ahead to membership ballot on
the proposals. There was an unsuccessful legal challenge before
merger could take effect.
There were significant cultural differences between PTC and CPSA.
The latter, despite its strong activist led culture, did accord significant
power to the General Secretary. PTC had a decision structure which
was much more open and committee based. The CPSA General
Secretary used his power, in ways which were not (allegedly) always
transparent. When, therefore, the decision was taken to move PTC
staff into the old CPSA Head Office soon after merger, there was scope
for significant cultural collisions.
The strategy on merger had been that the two Joint General
Secretaries would run the organisation for two years but that, on the
retirement of John Sheldon, the ex PTC General Secretary, Barry
Reamsbottom, the ex CPSA General Secretary would take over.
However, rule changes were effected in 2000 which led (after a series
of convoluted events not directly relevant here) to an election for
General Secretary taking place in that year and the election of Mark
Serwotka, who took office in May 2002. The union had to face legal
proceedings prior to Mark Serwotka’s taking of office being confirmed.
Barry Reamsbottom was one of only two officials in any union who
refused to see me.
UNiFI
UNiFI was formed in 1999 by the merger of the Banking, Insurance and
Finance Union (BIFU), the National Westminster Bank Staff
Association (NWSA) and UNiFI, formerly the Barclays Bank Staff
Union. BIFU had been by far the largest of the three unions and
regarded itself as the union for all finance staff. However, it had not
been appealing to potential members, partly, it was suggested,
because of BIFU’s political nature and its ‘one size fits all’ approach to
unions who might otherwise have merged with it. Unions preferred to
merge with ASTMS (later MSF) to be able to have a degree of freedom
to pursue their company affairs without too much central interference.
The massive changes in the finance sector had led many unions to
consider their positions. Cranfield undertook a report on these trends in
1997 which led to UNiFI, for whom the report was written, deciding to
merge with MSF. However, this was overturned by the Executive and
the three way merger was proposed as the alternative. The tripartite
nature of it was regarded as important to prevent the domination of
BIFU. Further, central to the scheme of merger were rules which gave
autonomy on collective bargaining matters to Company Committees,
preventing interference in those processes by any centrally operating
National Executive Council.
The General Secretary of NWSA, Rory Murphy, had been appointed
from outside the union and very early on indicated that merger would
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