The Lancashire Box, Packing Case and General Woodworkers' Society (LBPCGW) was a long-lived

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 ( ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, principally representing workers involved in making wooden boxes in the

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

area.

History

The union was founded in 1825 as the Manchester and Salford Trunk and Packing Case Makers' Friendly, Relief and Burial Society. Initially, all members had to have completed an

apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a Tradesman, trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners ...

in the trade, and to agree not to undertake

piecework Piece work (or piecework) is any type of employment in which a worker is paid a fixed piece rate for each unit produced or action performed, regardless of time. Context When paying a worker, employers can use various methods and combinations of ...

. Because most of the boxes made were for textile products, the union worked closely with those in the cotton trade, rather than other unions of woodworkers. Membership of the union remained very small for many years: only 161 in 1849, and 360 in 1899. It tried to broaden its membership base, becoming the Manchester, Salford and Bolton Wood Packing Case Makers' Society in 1892, and unsuccessfully trying to recruit workers in the trade on lower wages in both 1900 and 1905. These workers instead formed a rival Manchester and Salford Wood Packing Case Makers (No 2 Society), which finally merged into the original union in 1910. After

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 society again broadened its remit, accepting box makers from 1917, child workers from 1918, and workers undertaking piecework from 1919. This took membership over 1,000, and from 1918 the union was able to employ a full-time general secretary. The cotton industry declined in Lancashire throughout the 20th-century, and the union began recruiting more workers involved in making packaging for heavy engineering products, such workers making up 90% of the total by the 1970s. It also recruited palette makers and some people involved in other areas of woodwork, and in recognition of this adopted its final name in 1945. The union was still active in the mid-1980s, with around 500 members. In 1993, it merged into the

Transport and General Workers' Union The Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU or T&G) was one of the largest general trade unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland – where it was known as the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union (ATGWU) to differentiate its ...

.{{cite web, title=Transfer of engagements of Lancashire Box, Packing Case and General Woodworkers Friendly Relief, Sick, Superannuation and Burial Society to Transport and General Workers Union, url=http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C11505533, website=The National Archives, accessdate=27 March 2018

General Secretaries

:1970s: A. Smith

References

Defunct trade unions of the United Kingdom Trade unions established in the 1820s Trade unions disestablished in 1993 Transport and General Workers' Union amalgamations Trade unions based in Greater Manchester