200th COHSE Member 1977

The 200,000th COHSE Member

22nd February 1977

The Confederation's (COHSE) membership has, as you know, been increasing rapidly in recent times and this has been entirely due to the increasing efforts of our full time officers in the regions, and our active branch officials and stewards. I am very pleased to be able to tell you that our membership has now reached the magnificent total of 200,000, more or less on schedule for the target which I set on becoming General Secretary.

The announcement will be made tomorrow (Wednesday) in London at a press conference and a press release has already been sent to all provincial dally newspapers. A special supplement of (COHSE Journal) Health Services has been prepared and will be available with the March 1977 issue. Special announcements will also appear in the health journals and Labour Movement newspapers of the week ending Friday 11^th march

Our 200,000th member is Wendy Ann Thompson, aged 22, a staff nurse at North Manchester General Hospital who joined the union because she "saw how effective we were and is very impressed by the friendliness and professional aspects”

This is a magnificent achievement for the Confederation and means that we have increased in size three-fold in ten years, and doubled in the last five years On behalf of the President and National Executive Committee, I would like to thank everybody in the branches to whom the main credit for this achievement must go.

The NEC Will Insider a new membership target in the future, but in the meantime it is important that all branches should make maximum publicity at local level out of this achievement which of itself will prove to be a valuable recruiting aid

EAG Spanswick

COHSE General Secretary.