General Information
About the Central Counties & Thames Valley Branch
1 February 2009
The Central Counties & Thames Valley Branch of the Communication Workers Union represents members working in the telecommunications industry, who are predominantly based in Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Oxfordshire
The branch was formed in December 2008, by the merger of the Central Counties Combined Branch and the Thames Valley Engineering Branch. The Central Counties & Thames Valley Branch is the largest Telecoms constituency branch in the Eastern Region, and one of the ten largest Telecoms constituency branches nationally.
Old Branches
The Central Counties Combined Branch was formed by the merger of the old Beds, Herts & Bucks and Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire branches in November 2006.
The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Branch was an amalgam of the old Oxford and the old Oxon & Bucks CWU Branches. The Branch had offices in Oxford, Milton Keynes, High Wycombe and Banbury.
The Beds, Herts & Bucks Branch was formed from the old Beds & Herts and the
old Bedford Clerical CWU Branches in 1997. There were offices in Luton and Bedford.
The old Oxon & Bucks Branch contained the following ex-National Communication Union (NCU) Branches: North Oxon, Milton Keynes, Chilterns.
The old Beds & Herts ex-NCU branches were: Luton, Bedford Engineering, North Herts, Hemel
Hempstead.
Prior to the advent of the NCU, the union was called the Post Office Engineering Union (POEU).
Neighbouring Branches
- ENGINEERING
Hereford & Mid Wales; Northampton; Swindon; West Midlands & Worcester. - CLERICAL
Birmingham, Black Country & Worcester; Leicester & Northants; Swindon Clerical HQ; Thames Valley & Chilterns. - POSTAL
Coventry Area; Eastern No 6; Gloucestershire Amal; HP Amal; Northamptonshire Amal; Oxfordshire Postal; South East No 5; South West No 7; Thames Valley Amal; Worcester & Hereford. - MERGED CLERICAL AND ENGINEERING
Coventry; Gloucestershire Combined. - MOTOR TRANSPORT
South Central MT.
Businesses
We have a membership of over 2900, working in businesses like these:
BT PLC, O2, Cable & Wireless, NTL, Autoglass and Siemens. We are also organising workplaces in other telecoms businesses who have local sites, such as: Vodafone, Sitel, Alcatel and other cable companies.
