The Association of Scientific Workers (AScW) was a trade union in the United Kingdom. It was founded as the National Union of Scientific Workers in 1918, changing its name to the Association of Scientific Workers in 1927.
The union largely represented laboratory and technical workers in universities, the National Health Service and in chemical and metal manufacturing. It was the union for scientists with a conscience, and could name half-a-dozen Nobel Prize winners amongst its membership. The former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Margaret Thatcher was also a member.
In 1969 AScW merged with the ASSET (Association of Supervisory Staff, Executives and Technicians) to form ASTMS (the Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs)
General Secretaries 1918: Norman Campbell 1920: Archibald Church 1931: 1935: William Alfred Wooster 1945: Roy Innes 1949: Ted Ainley 1951: Ben Smith 1954: John Dutton
Literature Roy MacLeod, Kay MacLeod: The Contradictions of Professionalism: Scientists, Trade Unionism and the First World War, in: Social Studies of Science, Vol. 9, No. 1, European Issue (Feb., 1979), pp. 1–32
External links Catalogue of the AScW archives, held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick