Unionism among non-career civil servants (1917-1946)

This paper considers legislative changes affecting the civil service, and the conception of the civil service as defended by the unions of career civil servants. It tracks the trends in unionism of civil service auxiliaries (i.e., temporary or non-career staff) since its inception in 1917, as a side movement to the powerful Federation of Civil Servants, until 1946. In 1936, the Popular Front ushered in a key period that would bring all government employees together into a single labour movement. The unionists of the Federation significantly modified their practices with regard to auxiliaries, who were then welcomed into the Federation, and whose legal status was regarded differently within a more general framework of civil service reform supported by the Federation: the defence of a model based on career civil servants, and an improvement in the situation of auxiliaries while drastically curbing their recruitment.