MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

CHAPTER SEVEN
MANAGERS IN UNiFI
About the Union
7.1. 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. As suggested earlier,
however, it was not growing and it saw merger as the only way to
achieve that. The election of Ed Sweeney as General Secretary
undoubtedly had an influence on that and he went round other unions
which had merged to gain intelligence about the issues. Given the
enormous changes in the finance sector caused particularly by
consolidation of Banks and de-mutualisation of other financial
institutions, there was little alternative, in achieving a strategy of growth
through merger, to forming relationships with staff associations which
proliferated in the sector. This immediately raised problems for BIFU
because they had always regarded staff association members as ‘not
real trade unionists’ and tackling this attitude was always going to be a
problem. BIFU was not ideally placed, either, for integrating merger
partners. One of the reasons that it had not attracted merger partners
in the past (unlike, say, MSF) was because it had insisted on complete
integration so that corporate trade union policies, arrived at by
members in a variety of different organisations, would apply across the
board. A change in this approach proved vital and, as we shall see,
company autonomy in bargaining matters proved to be a cornerstone
of the merger.
7.2. The National Westminster Bank Staff Association had, for the first time,
appointed a General Secretary from outside its ranks in 1996. Rory
Murphy very soon told the union that it had to change or die and he
very much led the strategy of merger. He was convinced that the days
when a small staff association could benefit from a cosy relationship
with the employer could not last long and he indicated that, if a merger
strategy was not pursued, he would not be staying long. The Barclays
Bank Staff Association, which changed its name to UNiFI and was
subsequently known as ‘old UNiFI’, adopted a more cerebral, less
personality led approach. As mentioned earlier, it sought a report
analysing the state of the industry which led management to a
conclusion that it should seek merger with MSF. This was overturned
by its Executive which sought the three way merger with BIFU and
NWSA. For the staff associations, particularly NWSA, the idea of a
three way merger was important because it meant that BIFU would not
automatically be the dominant force within the new union.
7.3. As in all merger negotiations, there were ups and downs. One of the
most significant was when Paul Snowball, the General Secretary of old
UNiFI, left the union and was replaced by Bob Drake. This was
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