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.
Then in 1940 the Association of Women Clerks and Secretaries transferred to 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 and its predecessors were affiliated trade unions to the British Labour Party from 1907 and were key moderate influences within the Party, particularly as it enforced a rule preventing communists from holding positions with the union until 1972.
In 1989 the union joined the GMB trade union and now exists as a section of 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