Chapter 1: FORMATION AND EARLY YEARS
A very enthusiastic meeting assembled at the Flying Horse Inn, Groat Market, on Saturday, 18 January, 1873 and the Newcastle and Gateshead Trades Council was formed. A patternmaker named Gibson was chairman and GL Atkinson, a printer, became the first secretary. The printers were playing a prominent part and two others were members of the committee, Kidd and Hudson. The only others we know of were a baker named Gladstone and one Brown, a co-operative smith.
At that time more than 35,000 adult male workers, in the Industrial Class, lived in Newcastle and Gateshead. The vast works of Armstrongs, Stephensons and others employed thousands of engineering workers, while thousands more made the metal these men worked. But the two towns also gave work to some 1,200 tailors and 1,500 shoemakers working in small shops and there were still 1,300 blacksmiths, although many of these were, no doubt, employed in the factories and shipyards. While many of the shipyard workers lived further down river there were still about 500 in Newcastle and not many fewer in Gateshead.
The workers of the North East were rather late in forming trades councils. When the delegates met in Groat Market there were already 19 trades councils attending the annual meeting of the TUC, itself formed out of the initiative of the Manchester Trades Council in 1868. Weak trade union organisation amongst many trades, including the engineers, despite the long-established unions amongst the shipwrights, was probably a key factor in this delay. Although there is some evidence of the existence in the late 1850s of a combination of trades, known as “Newcastle and Gateshead Association of Trades”, the local press reflects little of its activities. It was only in 1871 that matters to move towards the formation of a continuous trades council, but it was at this time that the engineers were to begin their great strike which won the Nine Hours day, first in the North East and then throughout Britain. This militant action probably delayed the final birth of the Newcastle Trades Council.
The precise membership of the unions who formed the Council in 1873 is not known but Atkinson gave a figure of 2,000 members within a month of the first meeting. A few days later he secured the affiliation of the Walker Branch of the Tyne Shipwrights Providential Society. By May .the Council was having “'a very large attendance of delegates” and had begun its practice of inviting guest speakers, on that occasion the Rev WB Best – on the Friendly Societies of the Medical Association. The trades represented at the end of the first year included: painters, chainmakers, hammermen, tailors, co-operative smiths, bakers, pattern makers, shipwrights, engineers, masons and bookbinders. In June 1874 the secretary, in presenting the first annual report, recorded that while trade was on the whole satisfactory one trade union had submitted to a reduction in wages because of a fall in market prices. The report, while noting the successful formation of the Council, urged consideration of the best means of securing and extending its influence. These proposals were carried out with some success for when JC Laird represented the Council at the TUC in 1875 he was speaking for more than 5,000 trade unionists affiliated to the Council.
The Trades Council was already reflecting one of its characteristics in being largely composed of the smaller or newly organised trades; the patternmakers were formed in Newcastle in 1 872, printers and bakers were well established trade unionists, but in smaller groups than the powerful boilermakers who stayed out. Help for those attempting to organise was quickly established as a regular trades council function. In the North East, as in other places in Britain, the agricultural workers were attempting to form trade unions under the difficult conditions which typified work on the land. W Gardner, Northern Counties organiser of the National Union of Agricultural Labourers, was a regular attender at the Council meetings and, in May 1874, it was resolved to offer “hearty support to the locked out agricultural labourers” and pledged “support by all legitimate means in its power”. This policy was actively pursued. A subcommittee was established to assist the labourers; open air meetings were held and collections made; at one meeting £3 was collected. Council meetings were soon the established place for many vigorous debates on contemporary issues. In September, a large deputation attended the Council to present “particulars of the discharge note system, which acted so injuriously to workmen in this district”. This note was usually issued by the foreman when a man left his job and was a continuing source of trouble especially for engineering workers. The Council decided to take legal advice but no outcome is reported; at this time the note system was not very well established but was later to become a major issue for trade union action.
A continuing theme for the Trades Council was the local social services and, in October, it was resolved “to further by all means in its power the Hospital Saturday Movement”. Support for hospitals was a very important matter for workers throughout the nineteenth century; in many factories, there were weekly collections and in almost all a major collection. Participation in such activity was usually the means of securing attention more promptly in the event of injury or illness.
A general account of the Council’s attitude to politics will be discussed in the next chapter but there was immediate involvement in the preparation for a massive Manhood Suffrage Demonstration in Newcastle in 1873. Atkinson and the veteran of the Nine Hours strike, Pletts, were involved in the preparation for this meeting and Atkinson was chairman of platform No 5 on the Town Moor when the meeting was held in August. At this time Atkinson spoke of the absentee voters amongst the workers which all too often resulted in the failure to secure the election of radical candidates. The great demonstration on the Town Moor may have collected together 200,000 people. The parade of Newcastle workers included the great works of Hawthorns, Joiceys and Elswick, as well as the trades and union banners; the chainmakers, bricklayers, printers’ machinists, shipwrights, sawmill workers, brass trades, shoemakers, Gateshead pipe makers, tankers, masons, river workers, patternmakers, engineers, bakers, painters and quarrymen. These ‘city’ workers joined the thousands of miners who turned out to demand the vote for all adult men.
The Trades Council was the on]y organisation at local level which brought together the workers from the various trades in any district, and this made them the natural place for those in difficulties to seek support. Just before Christmas 1877, a deputation of chainmakers sought the support for the amendment of the Workshops Act to cover their trade. Examples of the heavy chains produced by women and the work done by children were shown to the Council which then resolved:
“… The Council hearing with regret the very demoralising elects of the employment of females and children at chain and nail making, pledge themselves to make every effort to get a clause inserted in the amendment to the Workshops & Factories Act to abolish all female and child labour up to the age of 16 years in the chain and nail making trades.”
Two years later the Council successfully assisted the chainmakers in resisting a reduction of wages. During the seventies, the labourers in the shipyards were attempting to form stable unions. The Council assisted these workers on Tyneside to draw up their rule book, which was brought to the Council in July 1877 for approval. JC Laird raised the matter of the disputes between the members of the Boilermakers at the TUC in 1877 and 1878 but with little success. The labourers were also being supported by the Sunderland Trades Council at this time. Whenever a society was on strike, resisting a wage cut or pressing for an increase, they reported the matter to the Council which readily gave such assistance as it could, but their support was frequently based on a reasoned case as stated in their resolution backing the masons in 1876. “… taking into consideration the amount of time lost by them during the winter months, they are justified in their present demand …”
The Council was not, however, in any sense prone to advocate strikes. Much nearer to their standpoint, in common with many North East coast trade union leaders, was the statement made by their secretary in 1874: “There were times when a strike became absolutely necessary but, in 99 cases out of every 100, calm counsel and mutual consideration between the labourer and the capitalist would obviate much misery, and conduce to the benefits of both parties ….” In 1888, the Council attempted to express a general policy:
“… If practicable, before a strike be entered upon by any of the trades comprising the Council, full particulars for the contemplated change shall be laid before the Executive, with the object of receiving their advice and assistance. That it be the duty of the Executive, before endorsing any such strike, to consider whether a collision cannot be obviated, either by their own mediation or by having the matter so in dispute referred to arbitration.”
While such a policy was clearly affected by the considerable independent attitude of each trade, the Council was always pleased to note the absence of strikes. The annual report of 1888/9 found it “gratifying to report that in only four cases had it been found necessary for the afhliated trades to withdraw their men”. The booming trade of that year no doubt made labour relations easier but there is little evidence of strikes required for higher wages.
Eight years after the engineering workers of Newcastle had won the 9 hours day, the employers attempted in the depression of 1879 to restore the 10 hours day. The Newcastle Trades Council joined the South Shields TC to assist the national Nine Hours Maintenance League. Fortunately, there were no serious efforts to change hours in the North East. Output expanded steadily from 1879 to 1883, when the North East shipbuilders built more than 216,000 tons, but then a sharp depression set in. During the next year, only 124,000 tons were built and it was to continue to fall until in 1886 the tonnage was only 86,000 tons. This depression (from 1884 to 1887) affected all aspects of the industrial and commercial life of Tyneside. The Trades Council thanked the Mayor and other city officials for help “in seeking to relieve our fellow members from the trying and embittered position in which so many of them have found themselves placed through the lengthened and continued depression of trade ….” This prolonged period of extensive unemployment profoundly affected the attitude of the craft workers to the protection of their jobs. This was to give the Council one of its gravest problems – demarcation disputes between the affiliated unions.
A dispute between the joiners and shipwrights, too complex to be examined here, caused considerable acrimony. The Tyne District Committee of the Carpenters and Joiners Society sent a delegation to a Council meeting in 1890; the result was “a long and somewhat acrimonious discussion”. The joiners’ leader, Heslop, attempted to reverse an earlier decision not to discuss inter-union disputes because of the invidious position it created for the Council. Finally, by a large majority, the meeting resolved: “that this Council is of the opinion that the principle of arbitration will be best maintained by withholding our sympathy from any body.of men who dissent from the award of a regularly appointed umpire.” This was a reproof to the joiners but the matter was not settled and continued to bother the Council for many meetings. At this time, the national secretary of the shipwrights, Alex Wilkie, was a regular attender at Council meetings. Later that year, the seamen’s delegate, Mansell, investigated two further demarcation disputes. But disputes continued and one delegate moved a resolution “regretting the strong personal feelings … in a body looked up to as the guardian of true progressive trades unionism”; the matter was finally quelled by carrying the ‘previous question’.
There was much public discussion of the benefits of emigration amidst the depression of the mid-1880s. More than 1,200 people attended a public debate in Newcastle when, having heard the case for state-aided migration, labour spokesmen argued for the abolition of systematic overtime and an 8-hour day as a better alternative. The Trades Council was reviewing the matter in 1884, following a letter from the secretary, of the National Association for Promoting State Directed Emigration. Little appears to have followed immediately but certainly in 1886 the Council was actively assisting workers to go to Australia. Laird reported in May that arrangements to send 45 emigrants to West Australia in April were postponed for a few months because, due to the depressed state of South Australia, people were moving to West Australia. The matter was under discussion again when BC Browne, a local engineering employer, wrote concerning another Emigration meeting in 1888.
The membership of the Council probably reached 6,000 in 1877, and it fell during the depression in 1879, when it was probably less than 4,000. Based on the figures quoted for the representatives to the TUC, membership may not have increased in the boom in 1883 and membership probably fell in the 1880s but it was a very active Council. The railwaymen were beginning to organise on Tyneside and Laird presided over a meeting of railwaymen on a Sunday in November 1881; twenty years later, the Council helped in the formation of the first branch of the railway clerks. Help was also extended to the local branch of the “National Union of Life Assurance Agents” who joined in June 1888. In 1889, there were 26 branches affiliated with more than 8,500 members. Support was given to the movement for the 8-hours day, as expressed in the following resolution:
“That this Council is of the opinion that, owing to the increased knowledge of the workers and the extensive application of scientific machinery to. production, and the consequent increased aggregate production of wealth, and the inability to find employment for large numbers of skilled and unskilled workmen, it is now possible, necessary and desirable that the social opportunity of the people should be increased by a reduction of the hours of labour to eight hours per day as a maximum day for all workers.”
At this time, the Council made one of its most significant actions in helping the development of trade unionism in the region. The Newcastle Chronicle published a letter, headed “A Wail from the Poor Labourers”, which pointed out that labourers had failed to share in recent wage increases but they felt the impact of the higher prices and earned only 18s a week. The next issue of the paper carried a response signed by the president and the secretary of the Trades Council which included:
“… How is it to be gained? Sir, by organisation; and, if the men feet that they are underpaid for their labour, let them organise and bring themselves together for the object of getting a better return for their labour. For this object, there will be a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Trades Council at the Lowther Inn this afternoon, at 4 o’clock, to assist in the formation of a labourers' society, or to assist them in getting better remuneration for their labour.”
A meeting was duly held, with Girling in the chair, under the title, the Northern District’s Labourers’ Association, and this planned a larger meeting at the People’s Palace. On February 16 1889, the Tyneside Labourers’ Association was formed on the motion of William Stanley, who became the union’s first organising secretary and was for many years an active member of the Trades Council. The new union grew rapidly and, by August, the Council’s report noted the “hearty response” and described it as “a very strong association”. The name was changed to the National Amalgamated Union of Labour and it organised the unskilled and semi-skilled workers in the shipyards, engineering workshops, chemical works, docks and many other places. This union was finally one of the major constituents of the NUGMW. There was some local rivalry with the National Labour Federation which failed regularly to gain affiliation to the Trades Council.
The membership of the Council exceeded 10,000 by 1890, when there were 32 societies and some 68 delegates attending meetings; income for the year was £31 13s 4d. In the following year, income exceeded £68 and some meetings bad an attendance exceeding 90 delegates. It would seem that membership may have decreased in the nineties. Official figures give a membership of 8,260 in 1894, rising to 9,500 the following year and then to 11,430. There then occurs a sharp drop to 5,511; a similar drop is given for other North East trade councils and it is more likely that this change is due to a statistical change rather than a real halving of membership. There is no evidence of such a catastrophic collapse, indeed the income for 1898 was over £162; by 1899, membership is given as 7,349. At this time, a major weakness in trades council membership was the absence of the powerful Boilermakers society, But, in staying out of the Trades Council they were reflecting their general tendency to go it alone and, given their high level of organisation and the still generally rising state of shipbuilding, they were very powerful alone. A further weakness was the general absence of ASE branches although some were affliated.
Regular reports were made by branch delegates on the state of the trade for their occupation. This no doubt helped the delegates when formulating trade policies on wages and other matters; these reports provide our only evidence now of affiliations in many years. During July 1891, the Labourers Union reported their members “very well employed”, while in September 1892, the state of the trades was reported as follows:
blacksmiths dull iron machinists best
engineers dull shipwrights very fair
shop asssistants dull lathrenders pretty fair
brush makers very dull sailors middling
drillers very bad typographical moderate
tin plate no reductions miners fair
labourers middling in some Tyne waterman fair
districts, threatened masons good
with reductions tailors dispute settled
in others railway servants little disturbance at present
Two years later, in addition to those listed, the following trades reported on the state of trade: bricklayers, bakers, joiners, boot and shoe rivetters, cabinet makers, plasterers, painters, quarrymen, slipper makers, French polishers, bookbinders, pipe makers, pattern makers and chain makers. The failure of these trades to report at the earlier meeting does not mean that the union was not affiliated, more likely the delegate was not present; such trades as the bakers were founder members and there is little likelihood that they ever left the Trades Council. In 1895, the glass makers and insurance agents reported, as well as the gas workers who were agitating for the abolition of Sunday working. Six years later, saddlers and harness makers, farriers and the Post Office trades reported.
The manufacture of lead products, one of the most hazardous occupations, was a matter to which the Council devoted a whole section of their report of 1889-90 in “White Lead Factories”. They were critical of men, indeed also women, working “twelve hours a day above the fumes of the most deadly poison”. But, they concluded:
“… delegates considered it was a case for the Inspector of Factories; and they were also of the opinion that there is an insufficient number of inspectors in the North East District; and they sincerely hope that the trades affiliated with the Council will take into their earnest consideration the necessity of agitating for the appointment of an additional number of practical persons as factory and workshop inspectors.”
The scarcity of inspectors remained and, at a later date, a member of the Council helped the author of The White Slaves of England [RH Sherard, 1897] to collect the information for his critique of women in lead factories.
“In the face of extreme depression” in 1892, the Council resolved that workmen should “refrain from … systematic overtime.” This was a persistent issue in the North East where the engineers finally, in 1891, secured a limitation agreement (18 hours per month apart from emergency circumstances). Few, if any, other trades achieved the success of the ASE. Some six years later, Council President, GLA Atkinson condemned those who worked at week-ends as barmen “contrary to the principles of trade unionism”. The increased likelihood of unemployment in the late nineteenth century caused difficulties for those who wanted ‘one man, one job’ and that to be done in the normal working hours. The movement amongst the London engineers for the eight-hour day and various local disputes on machine manning resulted in a major national stoppage. The engineers of the North East resented the application of the employers’ lock out to local workshops and this attitude was reflected in Trades Council resolutions. The Council “thoroughly condemn the action of the federated employers in making a national dispute (with its consequent suffering on many people who were in no way to blame) of the demand of the London engineers and trades for an 8 hours day, and pledging … to use its best endeavours to assist the engineers to a complete victory”. They planned public meetings and President Flynn pointed out, “Naturally, the labourers would be the men who would stand in most immediate need of support.” The People’s Palace Committee Fund was established to be used without discrimination to assist trade unionists and non-unionists. There was a massive open air rally organised, addressed by Kerr Hardie, and seeming to .be the first addressed by women speakers; Mrs Widdington, Miss Enid Stacey and Miss Harrison. The local press reported seven bands. 4,000 ASE members, 3,000 united machine workers, 400 steam engine makers, 500 iron founders, 200 stone masons, 400 railway servants, 100 brazier and metal workers, 100 painters and 1,200 non-unionists. The Trades Council continued their support but the engineers were defeated early in 1898.
The Trades Council played a part in civic events at a very early date and soon became spokesman and representative of the workers in many ways. Special discussions were held with the Mayor and other councillors to arrange for the visit of the former American president, Ulysses S Grant, in 1877. A great demonstration was held on the Town Moor and an address presented from “the workingmen of the North of England”. The South Shields Trades Council joined with Newcastle in the march to the Moor, which included tailors, painters, plumbers, masons, bricklayers, tankers and the Durham miners, amongst others. JC Laird played a prominent part in the Workers committee which helped prepare the jubilee exhibition in 1887.
Delegates from the Council sat on the management committee of local hospitals and, in April 1884, the chairman of one such board offered a “cordial and hearty welcome to the representatives of the workers present … they depended very much upon the workmen for the support of that institution, and they wanted the workmen to have confidence in that institution, and to see that the Infirmary was conducted in a sound and fair manner.” At this time, the Council’s executive committee were considering “the fair distribution of the workers’ subscriptions to the various institutions in the city”.
The availability of educational facilities was rarely long from the Council’s attentions and many efforts were made to extend the library services. The opening of the new Public Free Library in 1880 was seen as “primarily” affecting the working classes. Encouragement was given to recreative classes, of which the trade unionists were frequently secretaries. The policies adopted on public education were related io economic circumstances no less than general principles. Thus, in 1882, fears were being expressed as to the possible effects of increasing the period at school and the following was resolved: “That owing to the pressure of the compulsory attendance should be enforced after 13 years of age”. When a local committee was set up in 1887 to promote technical education, the Council sought representation on the committee. The Council continued.to press for free education and decided in August 1891 that they “felt justified in supporting the labour members of the Newcastle School Board in their endeavours to secure free education.” But even here a cautious approach was made by council member, W Flynn, who stated in his election address that it must not be free education at the price of higher rents. The new legislation in 1902 brought a renewed burst of activity on educational matters and the Council stoutly sought the continuation of the control of education by popularly elected boards and objected to sectarian teaching, at the expense of the nation. Their policy was for a national system of education paid for entirely from public funds.
The Trades Council played host to the annual meeting of the Trades Union Congress on many occasions, first in 1876 when JC Laird was in the chair. But, in 1895, the Newcastle Trades Council, like others throughout the country, were annoyed by the exclusion of their delegate from the Norwich TUC meeting. The increased cost of affiliation had already reduced the representative strength of the Council, now less than that of other Councils; but the policies of resisting the political ideas of the Socialists and the policies of ‘new unionism’ were uppermost in the minds of national leaders. When Flynn returned from Norwich, the Council was seeking some more effective action than a mere resolution of protest and they supported the formation of a national federation of Trades Councils and societies with a view “of holding a National Parliament of Labour”. This idea did not have much success. Again, and for the final time, the Newcastle Trades Council arranged for a TUC meeting in 1911.
The Council had not lacked in its efforts to lead and strengthen the trade unions of Newcastle, Gateshead and district during the nineteenth century. They were an important factor in getting new unions established, in particular amongst the labourers. The existence of a united body was always an encouraging factor for those groups of workers in smaller units such as shop assistants. The Council would have been more powerful with a massive membership from the Boilermakers and ASE, but the leaderships of certain unions were not always willing to encourage their members to join trades councils.