Catalogue Number
NMLH.1992.612
Object Name
Badge
Title
'National Union of Asylum Workers'
Description
THIS RECORD USES OUTDATED TERMS FOR CONTEXT
National Union of Asylum Workers badge, date unknown. Metal badge with blue, turquoise, white and red enamel. Central column with scales of justice, all seeing eye and clasped hands. Scroll across column reading 'All For One For All'.
The Asylum Workers' Association was founded in 1895 "to promote the interests and welfare of Asylum Nurses and Attendants, and of others engaged in nursing the insane, and thereby improve their professional status in the nursing world". It still existed in 1918. The AWA was ousted by the National Asylum Workers' Union (NAWU) and Mental Hospital and Institutional Workers' Union (MHIWU).
NAWU, the oldest constituent of COHSE, was founded in 1910 in reaction to the effects of the 1909 Asylum Officers Superannuation Act. The Union changed its name on 1 Jan 1931, following the new attitudes and terminology of the Mental Treatment Act of 1930. The MHIWU amalgamated with the Hospital & Welfare Services Union (founded in 1943) in 1946 to form Confederation of Health Service Employees (COHSE).
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