United Textile Factory Workers' Association Explained

United Textile Factory Workers' Association
Location Country:	United Kingdom
Affiliation:	Labour Party
Members:	100,522 (1946)^[1]
Founded:	1889
Dissolved:	1975
Merged Label:	Dissolved

The United Textile Factory Workers' Association (UTFWA) was a trade union federation in Great Britain. It was active from 1889 until 1975.

Objectives

The federation was founded in 1889, to represent the various textile workers' unions in political matters.^[2] A successor to the Northern Counties Factory Acts Reform Association, it had a broader outlook, not just campaigning on the implementation and extension of the Factory Acts.^[3]

The UTFWA initially represented around 125,000 workers,^[4] three-quarters within twenty miles of Bolton in Lancashire.^[5] By the early twentieth century, its members were organised in the Amalgamated Association of Card and Blowing Room Operatives, Amalgamated Association of Operative Cotton Spinners, Amalgamated Association of Beamers, Twisters and Drawers, Amalgamated Weavers' Association, General Union of Loom Overlookers and Operative Bleachers, Dyers and Finishers Association.^[6] Later members included the Amalgamated Textile Warehousemen, the General Warp Dressers' Association of Lancashire and Yorkshire, and the Ball Warpers' Association.^[7]

The new federation had a General Council with about two hundred members of local unions, and a Legislative Council of full-time leaders. However, its member unions did not always engage with its structures, and the General Council did not meet between 1896 and 1899.^[8]

Early years

In its early years, the association attempted to introduce a bill reducing working hours, but dropped the proposal after it was only narrowly passed in a ballot of members. It also hoped to sponsor parliamentary candidates for both the Conservative Party and Liberal Party, but decided not to pursue this following a lack of interest from the Conservatives and opposition from James Mawdsley. However, it did achieve some success in campaigning against Indian tariffs on cotton imports, as the rates were reduced to below those on other materials.^[9]

In 1902, breaking with its previous policy, the UTFWA supported David Shackleton's candidature for the Labour Representation Committee (LRC) in Clitheroe.^[10] He was elected and, the following year, the Association affiliated to the LRC. The Cardroom Workers quit the association a few years later after none of its members were adopted as parliamentary candidates, but rejoined in 1916.^[11]

In 1920, some of its member unions moved for the association to extend its remit to industrial matters, but this was not adopted.^[12]

Demise

The federation was dissolved on 1 December 1975,^[13] following the decline of the industry and the merger of its two largest affiliates into the Amalgamated Textile Workers' Union.^[14]

Election results

The federation sponsored a large number of Labour Party candidates, many of whom won election.

Election	Constituency	Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Position	Union
1906 general election			10,416	37.1	2^[15] ^[16]	Spinners^[17]
			12,035	75.9	1	Weavers
1910 Jan general election			11,864	30.5	2	Spinners
			13,873	67.3	1	Weavers
1910 Dec general election			7,729	64.0	2	Spinners
			12,107	67.7	1	Weavers
			7,853	23.0	4	Cardroom
			7,448	24.6	3	Beamers
1918 general election			9,578	44.7	1	Spinners
			7,400	35.1	2	Weavers
			14,075	62.0	1	Weavers
			15,178	19.6	3	Beamers
			6,545	37.2	1	Weavers
			19,213	25.8	1	Weavers
			7,984	35.1	2	Bleachers
			7,306	32.7	2	Weavers
			8,127	39.6	2	Beamers
1922 general election			8,331	38.9	2^[18]	Cardroom
			12,911	45.3	2	Spinners
			10,590	36.8	1	Beamers
			10,505	41.5	2	Cardroom
			24,434	27.7	2	Weavers
			8,374	41.3	2^[19]	Weavers
			26,259	27.9	1	Weavers
			11,029	36.5	2	Bleachers
			5,776	19.6	2	Spinners
			7,496	25.5	3	Weavers
1923 general election			25,133	18.6	1^[20]	Spinners
			12,179	45.3	2	Weavers
			11,469	37.9	2	Spinners
			12,031	49.1	2	Beamers
			7,849	28.7	3	Cardroom
			20,939	23.4	1	Weavers
			25,816	34.4	1	Weavers
1924 general election			30,632	20.9	3^[21]	Spinners
			13,074	42.3	2	Weavers
			11,690	39.5	1	Beamers
			8,442	27.0	2	Cardroom
			23,623	19.7	3	Weavers
			27,009	26.3	1	Weavers
			9,951	32.4	2	Weavers
			21,702	45.2	2^[22]	Weavers
1929 general election			43,520	24.0	1^[23]	Spinners
			37,888	20.9	2	Cardroom
			13,175	37.4	2	Weavers
			14,368	34.6	2	Cardroom
			37,705	29.5	1	Weavers
			14,223	37.2	1	Weavers
1931 general election			32,049	16.4	4^[24]	Cardroom^[25]
			33,736	17.3	3	Spinners
			10,532	29.7	2	Weavers
			12,915	28.5	2	Beamers
			10,796	25.4	2	Warehousemen
			25,710	18.0	3	Weavers
			5,913	14.4	3	Spinners
			11,857	31.7	2	Weavers
1935 general election			34,571	23.9	3^[26]	Weavers^[27]
			39,890	21.4	3	Spinners
			39,871	21.4	4	Warehousemen
			17,398	38.9	2	Weavers
			29,647		4	Cardroom
			16,035	46.2	2	Weavers
			24,298	59.1	1^[28]	Weavers
1945 general election			28,462	66.1	1^[29]	Weavers
			31,704	23.9	1	Overlookers
			32,889	24.1	2	Weavers
1950 general election			25,375	56.6	1^[30]	Weavers
			14,206	32.6	2	Weavers
			21,510	45.0	1	Overlookers
1951 general election			28,058	48.4	2^[31]	Weavers
			18,582	44.7	2	Weavers
			26,297	59.2	1	Weavers
			21,834	59.9	1	Weavers
1955 general election			16,671	43.5	2^[32]	Overlookers
			24,829	57.7	1	Weavers
1959 general election			16,103	41.9	2^[33]	Overlookers
			27,393	58.6	1	Weavers
			28,492	62.1	1^[34]	Weavers
			30,015	66.2	1^[35]	Weavers
			15,235	31.2	2^[36]	Weavers

Leadership

Secretaries

1889: Thomas Birtwistle

c.1892: James Mawdsley

1902: Joseph Cross

1925: James Bell

1931: Cephas Speak

1943: Ernest Thornton

1953: Harold Bradley

1958: James Milhench

1968: Joseph Richardson

Presidents

1889: David Holmes

1890s: William Mullin

1913: William C. Robinson

1919: Walter Gee

1924: William Thomasson

1935: Archie Robertson

1953: William Roberts

1958: Harold Chorlton

1964: Jim Browning

See also

• History of trade unions in the United Kingdom

References

1. [Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]
2. D. A. Farnie, Region and Strategy in Britain and Japan, p.117
3. Andrew Bullen, The Lancashire Weavers Union, p.22
4. Teun Hoefnagel, Tussen traditie en emancipatie, p.328
5. P. F. Clarke, Lancashire and the New Liberalism, p.84
6. P. F. Clarke, Lancashire and the New Liberalism, p.93
7. [Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]
8. David Howell, British Workers and the Independent Labour Party, 1888-1906, pp.58-59
9. P. F. Clarke, Lancashire and the New Liberalism, pp.84-88
10. P. F. Clarke, Lancashire and the New Liberalism, pp.91-92
11. Joseph L. White, The Limits of Trade Union Militancy: The Lancashire Textile Workers, 1910-1914, pp.151-152
12. H. A. Clegg et al, A History of British Trade Unions Since 1889: 1911-1933, p.305
13. Report of Annual Trades Union Congress, vol.108, p.379
14. "Amalgamated Textile Workers' Union", Archives Hub
15. Joel Dayton Moore, The Taff Vale Decision in British Labor History, pp.115-116
16. [Frank Bealey]
17. Book: Fowler, Alan . Wyke . The Barefoot Aristocrats: A History of the Amalgamated Association of Operative Cotton Spinners . George Kelsall . Littleborough . 1987 . 0-946571-10-4 .
18. [Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]
19. News: Textile workers' campaign . Manchester Guardian . 19 November 1923.
20. News: Textile Workers' Group . Manchester Guardian . 20 November 1923.
21. News: Seven textile workers' candidates . Manchester Guardian . 15 October 1924.
22. [Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]
23. News: Cotton operatives' candidates . Manchester Guardian . 7 March 1929.
24. Annual Report of the Labour Party . 1931 . 11 - 27.
25. News: Factory Workers & A Manifesto . Manchester Guardian . 15 October 1931.
26. List of Endorsed Labour Candidates and Election Results, November 14, 1935 . Annual Report of the Labour Party . 1935 . 8 - 23.
27. News: Textile Workers: Effort to Secure More Seats in Parliament . Manchester Guardian . 3 May 1935.
28. Parliamentary by-elections . Report of the Annual Labour Party Conference . 1939 . 57 - 63.
29. [Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]
30. List of Parliamentary Labour candidates and election results, February 23rd, 1950 . Report of the Forty-Ninth Annual Conference of the Labour Party . 1950 . 179 - 198.
31. [Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]
32. [Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]
33. [Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]
34. [Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]
35. [Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]
36. [Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]

Further reading

• Griffiths, Trevor. The Lancashire Working Classes: C. 1880-1930 (Oxford University Press on Demand, 2001).
• Procter, Stephen, and J. S. Toms. "Industrial Relations and Technical Change: Profits, Wages and Costs in the Lancashire Cotton Industry, 1880-1914." Journal of Industrial History 3#1 (2000): 54-72. online
• Singleton, J. Lancashire on the scrapheap: The cotton industry, 1945–70 (Oxford UP, 1991).
• Tippett, L.H.C. A portrait of the Lancashire cotton industry (Oxford UP, 1969).
• White, Joseph L. "Lancashire Cotton Textiles," in Chris Wrigley, A History of British industrial relations, 1875-1914 (Univ of Massachusetts Press, 1982) pp 209–229.