Founded | 1889 |
---|---|
Dissolved | 1975 |
Location | |
Members | 100,522 (1946)[1] |
Affiliations | Labour Party |
The United Textile Factory Workers' Association (UTFWA) was a trade union federation in Great Britain. It was active from 1889 until 1975.
Objectives
[edit]The federation was founded in 1889, to represent the various textile workers' unions in political matters.[2] A successor to the Northern Counties Factory Acts Reform Association, it had a broader outlook, not just campaigning on the implementation and extension of the Factory Acts.[3]
The UTFWA initially represented around 125,000 workers,[4] three-quarters within twenty miles of Bolton in Lancashire.[5] By the early twentieth century, its members were organised in the Amalgamated Association of Card and Blowing Room Operatives, Amalgamated Association of Operative Cotton Spinners, Amalgamated Association of Beamers, Twisters and Drawers, Amalgamated Weavers' Association, General Union of Loom Overlookers and Operative Bleachers, Dyers and Finishers Association.[6] Later members included the Amalgamated Textile Warehousemen, the General Warp Dressers' Association of Lancashire and Yorkshire, and the Ball Warpers' Association.[1]
The new federation had a General Council with about two hundred members of local unions, and a Legislative Council of full-time leaders. However, its member unions did not always engage with its structures, and the General Council did not meet between 1896 and 1899.[7]
Early years
[edit]In its early years, the association attempted to introduce a bill reducing working hours, but dropped the proposal after it was only narrowly passed in a ballot of members. It also hoped to sponsor parliamentary candidates for both the Conservative Party and Liberal Party, but decided not to pursue this following a lack of interest from the Conservatives and opposition from James Mawdsley. However, it did achieve some success in campaigning against Indian tariffs on cotton imports, as the rates were reduced to below those on other materials.[8]
In 1902, breaking with its previous policy, the UTFWA supported David Shackleton's candidature for the Labour Representation Committee (LRC) in Clitheroe.[9] He was elected and, the following year, the Association affiliated to the LRC.[2] The Cardroom Workers quit the association a few years later after none of its members were adopted as parliamentary candidates, but rejoined in 1916.[10]
In 1920, some of its member unions moved for the association to extend its remit to industrial matters, but this was not adopted.[11]
Demise
[edit]The federation was dissolved on 1 December 1975,[12] following the decline of the industry and the merger of its two largest affiliates into the Amalgamated Textile Workers' Union.[13]
Election results
[edit]The federation sponsored a large number of Labour Party candidates, many of whom won election.
Leadership
[edit]Secretaries
[edit]- 1889: Thomas Birtwistle
- c.1892: James Mawdsley
- 1902: Joseph Cross
- 1925: James Bell
- 1931: Cephas Speak
- 1943: Ernest Thornton
- 1953: Harold Bradley
- 1958: James Milhench
- 1968: Joseph Richardson
Presidents
[edit]- 1889: David Holmes
- 1890s: William Mullin
- 1913: William C. Robinson
- 1919: Walter Gee
- 1924: William Thomasson
- 1935: Archie Robertson
- 1953: William Roberts
- 1958: Harold Chorlton
- 1964: Jim Browning
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b Labour Party, Report of the Forty-Fifth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, p.77
- ^ a b D. A. Farnie, Region and Strategy in Britain and Japan, p.117
- ^ Andrew Bullen, The Lancashire Weavers Union, p.22
- ^ Teun Hoefnagel, Tussen traditie en emancipatie, p.328 (in Dutch)
- ^ P. F. Clarke, Lancashire and the New Liberalism, p.84
- ^ P. F. Clarke, Lancashire and the New Liberalism, p.93
- ^ David Howell, British Workers and the Independent Labour Party, 1888-1906, pp.58-59
- ^ P. F. Clarke, Lancashire and the New Liberalism, pp.84-88
- ^ P. F. Clarke, Lancashire and the New Liberalism, pp.91-92
- ^ Joseph L. White, The Limits of Trade Union Militancy: The Lancashire Textile Workers, 1910-1914, pp.151-152
- ^ H. A. Clegg et al, A History of British Trade Unions Since 1889: 1911-1933, p.305
- ^ Report of Annual Trades Union Congress, vol.108, p.379
- ^ "Amalgamated Textile Workers' Union", Archives Hub
- ^ a b Joel Dayton Moore, The Taff Vale Decision in British Labor History, pp.115-116
- ^ a b Frank Bealey and Henry Pelling, Labour and Politics, 1900-1906, pp.290-292
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Fowler, Alan; Wyke (1987). The Barefoot Aristocrats: A History of the Amalgamated Association of Operative Cotton Spinners. Littleborough: George Kelsall. ISBN 0-946571-10-4.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Labour Party, Report of the Twenty-second Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp.255-272. Note that this list is of the sanctioned candidates as of June 1922, and there were some changes between this date and the general election.
- ^ "Textile workers' campaign". Manchester Guardian. 19 November 1923.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Textile Workers' Group". Manchester Guardian. 20 November 1923.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Seven textile workers' candidates". Manchester Guardian. 15 October 1924.
- ^ Labour Party, Report of the Annual Labour Party Conference (1925), pp.25–27
- ^ a b c d e f "Cotton operatives' candidates". Manchester Guardian. 7 March 1929.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Annual Report of the Labour Party: 11–27. 1931.
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(help) - ^ a b c d e "Factory Workers & A Manifesto". Manchester Guardian. 15 October 1931.
- ^ a b c d e f "List of Endorsed Labour Candidates and Election Results, November 14, 1935". Annual Report of the Labour Party: 8–23. 1935.
- ^ a b c d e "Textile Workers: Effort to Secure More Seats in Parliament". Manchester Guardian. 3 May 1935.
- ^ "Parliamentary by-elections". Report of the Annual Labour Party Conference: 57–63. 1939.
- ^ a b c Labour Party, Report of the Forty-Fifth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp.232-248
- ^ a b c "List of Parliamentary Labour candidates and election results, February 23rd, 1950". Report of the Forty-Ninth Annual Conference of the Labour Party: 179–198. 1950.
- ^ a b c Labour Party, Report of the Fiftieth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp.184-203
- ^ a b Labour Party, Report of the Fifty-Fourth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp.255-275
- ^ a b Labour Party, Report of the Fifty-Eighth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp.179-201
- ^ Labour Party, Report of the Sixty-Third Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp.158-180
- ^ Labour Party, Report of the Sixty-Fifth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp.308-330
- ^ Labour Party, Report of the Sixty-Ninth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp.289-312
Further reading
[edit]- Griffiths, Trevor. The Lancashire Working Classes: C. 1880-1930 (Oxford University Press on Demand, 2001).
- Procter, Stephen, and J. S. Toms. "Industrial Relations and Technical Change: Profits, Wages and Costs in the Lancashire Cotton Industry, 1880-1914." Journal of Industrial History 3#1 (2000): 54-72. online
- Singleton, J. Lancashire on the scrapheap: The cotton industry, 1945–70 (Oxford UP, 1991).
- Tippett, L.H.C. A portrait of the Lancashire cotton industry (Oxford UP, 1969).
- White, Joseph L. "Lancashire Cotton Textiles," in Chris Wrigley, A History of British industrial relations, 1875-1914 (Univ of Massachusetts Press, 1982) pp 209–229.