{{Use British English, date=February 2017
The Edinburgh Trade 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
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
in
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
.
The first permanent
trades council A labour council, trades council or industrial council is an association of labour unions or union branches in a given area. Most commonly, they represent unions in a given geographical area, whether at the district, city, region, or provincial or ...
in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
appears to have been formed in 1853, one of the first in the UK. However, the earliest records of the current council date to 1859, founded as the Edinburgh Trades Council, and it is to this date that a continuous existence can be proved.
The Scottish Land and Labour League, founded in 1884, started working closely with the trades council during the Broxburn miners' strike of 1887, and the following year the two bodies co-sponsored the first Scottish Socialist Societies conference, with the Social Democratic Federation and Edinburgh Christian Socialists; this led to the formation of the
Scottish Socialist Federation
The Scottish Socialist Federation was a Scottish political party founded by supporters of the Social Democratic Federation in Edinburgh in December 1888.F. W. S. Craig, ''Minor Parties at British Parliamentary Elections''
In the 1892 general e ...
(SSF). In 1893, the council co-organised a demonstration in support of the eight-hour working day with the SSF and
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 ...
(ILP). It remained close to the ILP, and in 1927 put up funds in order that its regional publication, the ''Labour Standard'', could continue, although it only survived three more years.
The council also helped organise unions in industries where there was no body in place; for example, in 1889, it organised a local branch of the
National Union of Dock Labourers
The National Union of Dock Labourers (NUDL) was a trade union in the United Kingdom which existed between 1889 and 1922.
History
It was formed in Glasgow in 1889 but moved its headquarters to Liverpool within a few years and was thereafter ...
. Into the 20th-century, it helped resolve disputes between unions, and in 1918 brokered an agreement between them on the organisation of women workers.
The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was influential in the council from the 1920s, but it never held a majority, and the council repeatedly voted down proposals to affiliate to the CPGB. In 1928, the trades council supported a CPGB-organised hunger march, despite the initial opposition of its officials. However, by the following year, the council had expelled all CPGB members and supporters. During the 1950s, the council supported the Edinburgh People's Festival against claims it was a CPGB front.
By the 1950s, the council had been renamed the Edinburgh and District Trades Council, and in 1993 it took its current name.Edinburgh Trade Union Council /ref>