The Journeymen Butchers' Federation of Great Britain was a

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

representing workers in the meat trade in Britain. The union was founded in 1902 by Joe Couldwell, bringing together the Barnsley Journeymen Butchers' Union, which had been founded earlier in the year, and a Sheffield-based union of butchers. Initially, the union was only a loose federation with a mere 75 members. The union became more centralised in 1907, and appointed Couldwell as its first general secretary.

Duncan Carmichael Duncan Carmichael (1870 – 31 August 1926) was a British people, British trade unionist and socialist activist. Living in Battersea, Carmichael joined the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) in 1903, and served on its executive committee fro ...

founded a branch in London 1908, and by 1914 the union had fourteen branches around Great Britain. By 1916, the union was able to employ Couldwell on a full-time basis.{{cite journal , title=Obituary: Mr Joe Couldwell , journal=Annual Report of the Trades Union Congress , date=1928 , pages=291–292 During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the union began to gain recognition from the government for negotiation purposes, in particular working with the Smithfield Control Board. It had 153 branches by 1921, and membership peaked at 7,000 in 1922, including 500 women. The union then went into decline, bottoming out at only 3,000 members in 1928, the year that Couldwell died. It then began to grow once more, and by 1946 it had reached a new peak of 7,943 members. That year, it merged into the

National Union of Distributive and Allied Workers The National Union of Distributive and Allied Workers (NUDAW) was a trade union in the United Kingdom. History The union was founded in 1921, when the Amalgamated Union of Co-operative Employees merged with the National Union of Warehouse and ...

General Secretaries

:1907: Joe Couldwell :1928: E. Beeley

References

Trade unions established in 1902 Trade unions disestablished in 1946 British butchers Trade unions based in South Yorkshire