The Rochdale Card and Blowing Room Operatives' Association 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 cotton industry workers in the

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

area of

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

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 ...

. The union was founded in 1879 as the Rochdale Male and Female Card and Blowing Room and Ring Spinners' Association, and registered with the

Board of Trade The Board of Trade is a British government body concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for International Trade. Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of ...

two years later. It was initially very small, with only 180 members in 1886. That year, it became a founder member of the Cardroom Workers' Amalgamation (CWA), and its membership rapidly increased, reaching 1,800 by 1892. After ten years of stagnation, it then grew rapidly once more, and in 1907 the

Todmorden Todmorden ( ; ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Upper Calder Valley in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England. It is north-east of Manchester, south-east of Burnley and west of Halifax, West Yorkshire, Hal ...

Cardroom Association merged in. Membership peaked at 7,770 in 1919, and despite dropping in the early 1920s, it recovered to 7,612 in 1936. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, membership of the union fell in line with employment in the Lancashire cotton industry, but general secretary

Harold Chorlton Harold Chorlton CBE (14 February 1898 – 4 January 1967) was a British trade union leader and politician. He served as the council leader in Rochdale, and also as a leading figure in the Lancashire cotton trade unions. Born in Rochdale, Lanca ...

became the leader of the CWA, and the Rochdale union remained one of its most important affiliates. The Heywood Cardroom Association merged into the Rochdale union in 1967 and, to reflect this change, in 1970 the union became the National Union of Textile and Allied Workers, Rochdale and Districts. Following further membership declines, in 1984 the union merged into the Central Lancashire and Calderdale Amalgamated Textile Workers' Union, which two years later joined the GMB.

General Secretaries

:J. J. Kingsley :1930:

:1963: A. Belfield

References

{{UTFWA Defunct trade unions of the United Kingdom Rochdale Cotton industry trade unions 1879 establishments in the United Kingdom 1984 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Trade unions established in 1879 Trade unions disestablished in 1984 Trade unions based in Greater Manchester