Tuesday, October 15, 2024

This is an ARCHIVED article at baff.org.uk. Information and/or links may well be out of date.

In May 2008 a new website appeared under the banner of 'The Servicemen's Union', announcing that:

The servicemen's union has been set up for all serving and ex-service personnel. We believe that all servicemen and women have the right to join a union and that we should as soon as possible be affiliated to the TUC, like any other union.

The website provided a copy of "The Original Soldier's Charter", which appears to have been published by Hull University Union Labour Society in 1971:

In consultation with members of the Leeds Labour Party Young Socialists, this Labour Society and the Young Chartists nationally, the authors of this document. all of them young soldiers, have formed a "Soldiers'Trade Union Rights Movement"...

The Charter is a fascinating period piece, which helps to explain why the typical opponent of a representative staff association turned out to have served as an officer in the 1970s.

The Servicemen's Union has no connection with the British Armed Forces Federation.

The Servicemen's Union website appears to have disappeared after 2009. We have an electronic copy of the 1971 "Soldier's Charter" .