National Union of Dyers, Bleachers and Textile Workers

NUDBTW
Full name National Union of Dyers, Bleachers and Textile Workers
Founded 1936
Date dissolved 1982
Merged into Transport and General Workers Union
Members 85,500 (1939)[1]
Country United Kingdom

The National Union of Dyers, Bleachers and Textile Workers (NUDBTW) was a trade union in the United Kingdom.

History

The union was founded in 1936 with the merger of the National Union of Textile Workers, which was the main union representing workers in the woollen and worsted industries, the Amalgamated Society of Dyers, Finishers and Kindred Trades, and the Operative Dyers, Bleachers and Finishers Association, which represented workers in Lancashire.[2][3] The NUDBTW represented a membership of 85,500 in 1939, of whom 25,500 were women.[1] Dyeing and finishing were predominantly male trades, and thus had a greater union presence than other sections of the British textile industry. The woollen and worsted industries, by contrast, were poorly organised.[4] Closed shop agreements covered the majority of workers employed in textile finishing.[5]

In 1980, the Yorkshire Society of Textile Craftsmen and the Huddersfield and District Healders and Twisters Trade and Friendly Society both merged into the NUDBTW.[6] After initially considering amalgamation with the National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers the NUDBTW merged into the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU) in 1982, forming a Dyers, Bleachers and Textile Workers Trade Group within the TGWU. Existing members of the TGWU who worked in the textile industry transferred into the new trade group, doubling its size.[7][8]

See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Cole, G.D.H. (1939). British Trade Unionism Today. Gollancz. p. 251.
  2. Lemon, Hugo. How to find out about the wool textile industry. p. 74.
  3. Cole, G.D.H. (1939). British Trade Unionism Today. Gollancz. p. 393.
  4. Cole, G.D.H. (1939). British Trade Unionism Today. Gollancz. p. 377.
  5. McCarthy, William Edward John (1964). The Closed Shop in Britain. University of California Press. p. 39.
  6. Chaison, Gary N. (1996). Union Mergers in Hard Times: The View from Five Countries. Ithaca, N.Y.: ILR Press. p. 175. ISBN 9780801483806.
  7. Chaison, Gary. Union Mergers in Hard Times. p. 176.
  8. Waddington, Jürgen; Kahmann, Marcus; Hoffmann (2005). A Comparison of the Trade Union Merger Process in Britain and Germany: Joining forces?. Abingdon: Routledge. p. 124. ISBN 0 415 35378 5. Retrieved 11 April 2013.