The Manchester Trades Union Council brings together

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 ( ...

branches in

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 ...

in England.

History

Efforts to bring trade unionists together across Manchester go back to the eighteenth century. In 1818 the cotton spinners persuaded other trades to join them in a successful but short lived Philanthropic Society. The first use of the name Trades Council was a meeting in 1837 of the United Trades Council of Manchester and Salford organising support for the Glasgow Cotton Spinners. A thousand people in the Corn Exchange listened to speakers including J.R. Richardson, author of ‘The Rights of Women’ and

Joseph Rayner Stephens Joseph Rayner Stephens (8 March 1805 – 18 February 1879) was a Methodist minister who offended the Wesleyan Conference by his support for separating the Church of England from the State. Resigning from the Wesleyan Connection, he became free t ...

, both of whom went on to be active

Chartists Chartism was a working-class movement for political reform in the United Kingdom that erupted from 1838 to 1857 and was strongest in 1839, 1842 and 1848. It took its name from the People's Charter of 1838 and was a national protest movement, ...

. Following a trade union conference in Sheffield in July 1866 called to discuss the use of the lockout weapon by employers, two delegates from the Manchester Typographical Association, William Henry Wood and Samuel Caldwell Nicholson, convened the inaugural meeting of the Manchester and Salford Trades Union Council in October 1866. A month later Wood was elected secretary and Nicholson president. Wood and Nicholson were Conservative working men. Other members of the council included the radicals Peter Shorrocks of the Tailors, William MacDonald of the Operative Housepainters and Malcolm MacLeod, an engineer. When the Council decided to avoid identifying with any political movement, the radicals set up the Trade Unionists Political Association with MacDonald as president and MacLeod as secretary. One of the Trades Council's first decisions was the proposal to form a court of arbitration. Set up jointly with the Manchester Chamber of Commerce in 1868, it was short-lived, failing to arbitrate a single case. More significantly in February that year, the council called a national conference of trade unionists which met in June and agreed to form what became the Trades Union Congress. Woods was elected president and Shorrocks secretary. This soon became the leading national association of trade unions. Peter Shorrocks played a leading role in establishing the Amalgamated Society of Tailors and was an active supporter of the

International Workingmen's Association The International Workingmen's Association (IWA), often called the First International (1864–1876), was an international organisation which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing socialist, communist and anarchist groups and trad ...

, the First International. He succeeded Wood to be secretary from 1877 to 1883. He was followed as secretary by

George Davy Kelley George Davy Kelley (1848 – 18 December 1911) was a British trades unionist and Labour politician. Kelley was born in Ruskington, Lincolnshire in 1848. He became apprenticed to the lithographic printing trade in York. Following his apprenti ...

, full-time secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Lithographic Printers and a member of the General Council of the Manchester Liberal Association. Kelley helped to greatly increase affiliations to the council. Many of the new affiliations were general unions of unskilled workers, a development which Kelley opposed as he felt the organisations would not endure, but they soon came to dominate the council. Despite this, Kelley remained the council's most prominent figure, being elected to Manchester City Council in 1891 as a Liberal-Labour representative.Alan Haworth and Dianne Hayter, ''Men who made Labour'', pp.122-123 In 1902, the council convened a meeting of local trade unionists and members of the

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...

and

Social Democratic Federation The Social Democratic Federation (SDF) was established as Britain's first organised socialist political party by H. M. Hyndman, and had its first meeting on 7 June 1881. Those joining the SDF included William Morris, George Lansbury, James Con ...

, which renamed the council as the Manchester Trades and Labour Council, becoming the local affiliate of the Labour Representation Committee. Two years later, Kelley broke his links with the Liberals, and in 1906 he was elected as a Labour Member of Parliament, standing down from his trades council posts. In the 1920s, the council affiliated to the

Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPG ...

-led

National Minority Movement The National Minority Movement was a British organisation, established in 1924 by the Communist Party of Great Britain, which attempted to organise a radical presence within the existing trade unions. The organization was headed by longtime unio ...

. Although the Labour Party set up its own Manchester Borough organisation, the council continued to campaign on a wide range of labour issues, remaining the leading labour movement organisation in the city into the 1930s, and attracted the support of

John Maynard Keynes John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originally trained in ...

for its proposals on local industrial policy.Alan Clinton, ''The Trade Union Rank and File: Trades Councils in Britain, 1900-40'', pp.179-180 In 1974, Salford District Trades Council was created, and the Manchester Trades Union Council adopted its present name.Salford Trades Union Council,
Officers

Secretaries

:1866:

William Henry Wood William Henry Wood was a British trade union leader. Biography Wood was a compositor, and became the Secretary of the Manchester Typographical Society, serving until 1879. In 1864, he was elected as the first Secretary of the Manchester Trades ...

:1877: Peter Shorrocks :1883:

:1906: Tom Fox :1909: William R. Mellor :1929: A. A. Purcell :1935:

Jack Munro William James Munro (1873 – 12 January 1948) was a British trade unionist. Born to British parents in India, Munro's father served in the British Indian Army, and Munro lived there until he was twelve. The family then moved to Manchester, ...

:1944: Horace Newbold :1969: Colin Davis :1974: Frances Dean :1982: Dave Hawkins - UHDE :1990: Arthur Berry - NGA :1999 Jeno Menezes :2004 Geoff Brown - UCU :2012 Frank Ellis - TSSA :2013 Richard Lighten -

UNISON In music, unison is two or more musical parts that sound either the same pitch or pitches separated by intervals of one or more octaves, usually at the same time. ''Rhythmic unison'' is another term for homorhythm. Definition Unison or per ...

:2014 Alexander Davidson - PCS :2016: Chris Marks - PCS :2018: Alexander Davidson - GMB :2019: John Pye - UNISON :2020: John Pye - UNISON

Presidents

:1866: Samuel Caldwell Nicholson : :1886: Matthew Arrandale - UMW :1895: F. Entwistle - ASE :1899: George Tabbron - Manchester Brassfounders :1901: Matthew Arrandale - UMW :1905: A. A. Purcell - NAFTA :1906: : Tom Fox :1914: A. A. Purcell - NAFTA :1920: Rhys Davies - SAU :1921: Ernest Hookway :1924:

(NUSMW) :1925: Ernest Hookway :1927: Will Crick :1927: Eric Gower :1932: Abraham Moss - RCA :1935: Fred Harrison - NSMM :1938: Bob Bradfield :1940: Tom Brown - NAUSAWC :1944: Jim Porter - USDAW :1946: Jim Cunnick - USDAW :1950:

Edmund Dell Edmund Emanuel Dell (15 August 1921 – 1 November 1999) was a British politician and businessman. Early life Dell was born in London, the son of a Jewish manufacturer. In the Second World War he served in the Royal Artillery, reaching the r ...

- ASSET :1951: Jim Porter - USDAW :1953: L. H. Addie - CSCA :1954: Jim Cunnick :1957: Jim Porter - USDAW :1959:

- ASSET :1961:

Eddie Marsden Edwin Marsden (26 April 1913''England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007'' – 30 August 1975) was a British people, British trade unionist and communist activist. Born in the Openshaw area of Manchester,Graham Stevenson,Marsd ...

- CEU :1964: Ernest Pearson - AEU :1967:

- CEU :1969: C. Davies :1970: Frances Dean - USDAW :1975: Mick Gadian - NUTGW :1978: M. Bury :1980: T. Keane :1982: Denis Maher - CEU :1988: Tony Lucas - MU :1989: Henry Suss - GMB Clothing and Textile Section :1991: Harry Spooner - NASUWT :2004: Sharon Green - PCS :2013: Annette Wright - PCS :2017: Alexander Davidson - PCS :2018: Annette Wright - PCS :2019: Ian Allinson - UNITE :2020: Ian Allinson - UNITE

Vice Presidents

:1945/46/47: Frances Dean :1948/49: E Pearson :1950:P Jackson :1951: J Porter :1952:P Jackson :1955/56: J Porter :1957/58: E Dell :1959/60: E Marsden :1961/62/63: E Pearson :1964/65/66: E Marsden :1967/68: C Davies :1969/70: A Harvey :1973/74:S Gadian :1977/78/79: F Hodgkinson :1980/81:D Maher :1982/83/84: JP Gunn :1985-89: Henry Suss :1989-91: G Peel :2004: Sarah Livesey -

USDAW The Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw) is a trade union in the United Kingdom, consisting of around 360,000 members. Usdaw members work in a variety of occupations and industries including: shopworkers, factory and warehouse wo ...

:2013: John Clegg - UNITE :2019: John Morgan - NEU :2020: John Morgan - NEU

References

*'and the new paths are begun' Manchester Trades Council History Vol 2 Jim Arnison and Edmund and Ruth Frow {{ISBN, 1 870605 85 3

External links

Official site
Organisations based in Manchester Politics of Manchester Trade unions established in 1866 Trades councils