Workers' Union

The Workers' Union was a general union based in the United Kingdom, but with some branches in other countries. During the 1910s, it was the largest general union in the UK, but it entered a rapid decline in the 1920s, and eventually became part of the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU).

History

Founded in 1898,^[1] the union sought to recruit all unorganised workers in the country. Initially, it was unsuccessful, membership falling from 4,000 in 1899 to only 1,000 in 1903, but it then began growing, reaching 5,000 in 1910. It then began recruiting rapidly, amalgamating a large number of small, localised unions. A focus on recruiting lower-skilled workers, particularly in engineering and agriculture, led to a boom in membership, which reached 91,000 in 1913, and nearly 500,000 by 1919. That year, it joined the National Amalgamated Workers Union, a loose confederation with the Municipal Employees Association and the National Amalgamated Union of Labour, but this dissolved in 1922.^[2]

Membership of the union collapsed during the 1920s, with job losses due to the depression, the General Strike of 1926 and disputes over payments to members of the executive committee. In 1929, it merged into the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU), with about 100,000 members remaining to transfer. This enabled the TGWU, for the first time, to gain significant numbers of members outside of the docks and transport industries.^[3]

General Secretaries

1898: Tom Chambers

1900: Charles Duncan

Presidents

1898: Charles Duncan

1900: Robert Morley

1913: John Beard

References

External links

• Catalogue of the WU archives, held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
• Catalogue of Richard Hyman's research papers on the WU, held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick