Northern Counties Textile Trades Federation Explained

The Northern Counties Textile Trades Federation was a trade union federation in northern England.

History

The federation was founded in 1906. By 1907, it brought together unions representing 126,700 members.^[1] Despite its name, it only included unions representing workers in the cotton industry; the wool industry and textile finishing were instead covered by the National Association of Unions in the Textile Trade.^[2] Another similar organisation, the United Textile Factory Workers' Association, devoted itself to political work, and two of its members (the Amalgamated Association of Card and Blowing Room Operatives and the Amalgamated Association of Operative Cotton Spinners) never joined the federation.^[3]

By 1960, the federation's members were:

• Amalgamated Association of Beamers, Twisters and Drawers (Hand and Machine)
• Amalgamated Tape Sizers' Friendly Protection Society
• Amalgamated Textile Warehousemen's Association
• Amalgamated Weavers' Association
• General Union of Loom Overlookers
• Lancashire Amalgamated Tape Sizers' Friendly Society
• Lancashire and Yorkshire Warp Dressers' Association

General Secretaries

1906: Tom Shaw

1919: Luke Bates

1943: Andrew Naesmith

1953: Lewis Wright

1968: Harry Kershaw

c.1970: Arthur Howcroft

1971: Fred Hague

References

1. Book: Report on Trade Unions in 1905-1907. 1909. Board of Trade. London. 121–124.
2. Edwin Hopwood, A History of the Lancashire Cotton Industry and the Amalgamated Weavers' Association, pp.75-76
3. Lynden Briscoe, The Textile and Clothing Industries of the United Kingdom