A Brief History 1947-2011

 

The Gibraltar Civil Service Association was originally formed and registered in 1947 and this constituted the beginnings of an Association for the Public Sector in Gibraltar.

 

The Gibraltar Government and Clerical Association, (GGCA), was formed in 1968 when the Clerical and Technical grades decided that their interests would best be served if they broke away from the Gibraltar Civil Service Association that represented a multiple of different grades and which therefore, brought sometimes a clash of interests whilst carrying out negotiations with Management.

 

The first President of the newly formed Gibraltar Government and Clerical Association was Mr. Frank Sullivan, (now deceased), and the first Hon. Secretary, Mr Douglas Yeats.

 

During 1983 the Association went through a further name change, keeping the acronym but changing the word Gibraltar to General and re-registering as the Gibraltar General and Clerical Association, (GGCA), this allowing a broader spectrum for membership within the Public and Private sector of the workforce in Gibraltar.

 

In 1985 Mr Silvio Peliza, who had been the Hon Secretary of the GGCA for many years while a serving Civil Servant, was engaged by the then Committee as the first full-time paid official once he had retired from the Service. Silvio served as the full-time Secretary between 1985 and 1990 the post being named Branch Secretary during 1989.

 

A UK based Trade Union known as the Institute of Professionals, Managers and Specialists and who represented a number of UK personnel working within HM Naval Base Gibraltar and Technical grades, shared premises with the GGCA when their representative was visiting Gibraltar. During 1989, negotiations with the IPMS by the then President of the GGCA, Mr J Valarino and his Committee, brought about by ballot of the GGCA membership a merger with the UK Trade Union and the GGCA went through another metamorphosis and became the GGCA Branch of the Institute of Professionals, Managers and Specialists. The GGCA though kept its name and autonomy and still retained the services of their own Branch Secretary. This was the beginning of a new dawn for the GGCA and its membership.

 

The ‘90’s saw the retirement of Silvio Peliza and Eleri Surrey installed as the new Branch Secretary and 1995 the stepping down of Joe Valarino as President to make way for MariCarmen Pecino the GGCA’s first female President of the Association. The ‘90’s proved to be a difficult period for the GGCA having two differing Governments during that decade, however with the new millennium, the GGCA stepped into the birth of a new era for the Civil Service, Public Sector and Private Sector and as a force to be reckoned with as a Trade Union.

 

2000 through to 2011 to follow.