UFS was a

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

representing workers, principally in finance, in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. The union was established in 1988 with its headquarters in

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

.UFS,
About us
It was a non-profit-making organisation, and was not affiliated to the

Trades Union Congress The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union centre A national trade union center (or national center or central) is a federation or confederation of trade unions in a country. Nearly every country in the world has a national tra ...

or to any political party, although it was part of the Alliance for Finance. UFS members came from many different employment sectors and the union had partnership agreements with some of the UK's major employers, including

Zurich Financial Services Zurich Insurance Group Ltd is a Swiss insurance company, headquartered in Zürich, and the country's largest insurer. As of 2021, the group is the world's 112th largest public company according to ''Forbes'' Global 2000s list, and in 2011 it ran ...

, Capita Group (Life & Pensions), IBM and

CSC CSC, Csc or CSc may refer to: Awards * Conspicuous Service Cross (disambiguation) ** Conspicuous Service Cross (Australia) ** Conspicuous Service Cross (New York) ** Conspicuous Service Cross (United Kingdom) Science and industry * Cancer ...

History

An Eagle Star Staff Union merged into the

Banking, Insurance and Finance Union The Banking, Insurance and Finance Union (BIFU) was a British trade union. The union was founded in 1946 as the National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE), when the Bank Officers' Guild and the Scottish Bankers' Association merged. In 1979, it ...

(BIFU) in 1981, becoming its Eagle Star Insurance Company Section. In 1988, it split from BIFU, again becoming an independent Eagle Star Staff Union, under the leadership of local organiser Alan Wood. It is from this date that the UFS dated his formation. Following the takeover of Eagle Star by Zurich Financial Services in 1998, ESSU changed its name to the Union of Finance Staff. It later shortened its name to UFS. At the start of 2017, UFS merged into

Community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

National Executive Committee

As a union, UFS was a democratic organisation that is organised into geographic regions, and is controlled by a National Executive Committee (NEC) which was elected by UFS members from different regions.UFS,
UFS Structure
NEC members were not employed by UFS except the position of General Secretary, which, as well as being an employed position, was also an elected NEC seat. The General Secretary of UFS from 1998 was Alan Wood.UFS,
UFS Staff

References

Defunct trade unions of the United Kingdom Financial services companies established in 1988 Trade unions established in 1988 Organisations based in Cheltenham Trade unions disestablished in 2017 Financial services companies disestablished in 2017 {{UK-trade-union-stub