Branch History

“I hope this short history of the society has brought home to the younger generation the struggles, the setbacks, the disappointments and the successes which attended the birth of our society.  To them I would say join the Union, attend the meetings, and be a loyal member of the society so that we, the early pioneers can look with pride on the fact that our struggle has been worthwhile”  Willie McBride Founder member of the Glasgow Branch.

Branch History 1901 - 1991   (click) -  Taken from a 1991 special edition of Contact Magazine.

Centenary Address taken from Contact magazine 2001 AGM Edition

Extract from 1906 100years ago.

In 1906 Glasgow Corporation telephones were taken over by the Post Office giving the Branch its first foothold in that august body. Members in the National Telephone Company were to wait some considerable time for that privilege!

The working class, preoccupied by daily struggle, so rarely finds time to record its history.  And the Glasgow Branch was no exception. Although the minute details of activity have been lost to the mists, it is known that local organisation was strong.

So too were the Branches in other large cities such as Liverpool, Birmingham and Manchester. The National Society of Telephone Employees [NSTCE] not however as professional and resilient as the sum of its component parts. Perhaps a lesson we still have not learned.

In those early years the NSTE executive was dominated by Londoners, a position challenged at conference in 1906. Showing an exceptionalism for which it was to become widely known, Glasgow moved a resolution calling for Scotland to become a separate unit of the Union. Although defeated, as has often been the case, the challenge was to provoke discussion on making the Executive representative of the Branches.