National Society of Operative Printers and Assistants

NATSOPA
Full name National Society of Operative Printers and Assistants
Founded 1889
Date dissolved 1982
Merged into Society of Graphical and Allied Trades
Members 20,877 (1946)[1]
54,464 (1980)[2]
Journal NATSOPA Journal and Graphic Review[2]
Affiliation TUC, P&KTF, Labour
Key people George Isaacs, Richard Briginshaw
Office location Caxton House, Borough Road, London
Country United Kingdom

The National Society of Operative Printers and Assistants (NATSOPA) was a British trade union.

History

Formed as part of the New Unionism movement in September 1889, the union was originally named the Printers' Labourers' Union and was led by George Evans. In 1899, it was renamed the Operative Printers' Assistants Union, and in 1904 it became the National Society of Operative Printers' Assistants, taking the acronym NATSOPA for the first time. In 1911, it assumed its long-term name, the "National Society of Operative Printers and Assistants". By this point, it had 4,722 members, and it grew rapidly, having 25,000 members in 92 branches by 1929.

In 1966, the union merged with the National Union of Printing, Bookbinding and Paper Workers, becoming Division 1 of the Society of Graphical and Allied Trades (SOGAT), but in 1970 the failure to agree a common rulebook led to Division 1 leaving to become the National Society of Operative Printers and Media Personnel. In 1972, it merged with the Sign and Display Trade Union,[3] and in 1982 it again merged with SOGAT, on this occasion the merger proving successful.

General Secretaries

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Labour Party, Report of the Forty-Fifth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, p.77
  2. 1 2 Eaton, Jack; Gill, Colin (1981). The Trade Union Directory. London: Pluto Press. pp. 171–176. ISBN 0861043502.
  3. ↑ Catalogue of the Natsopa archives

References

  • Arthur Marsh, Victoria Ryan and John B. Smethurst, Historical Directory of Trade Unions
  • James Moran, Natsopa: Seventy-five Years
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.