Symbols of Solidarity Vol. 5 Issue 4.

Welcome

To the fourth and final edition for 2023, thanks for the support.

Welcome Thankstothe MRCWarwick fortheirhelp andforpu ng our newsle ersin their catalogue,onlineand the againWCML for allowingus photograph,to this aroundmethe builders(OBS) trowels. Ifallgoesto plan,wewill belookingat brassand metal workers unionsinnextedi onsoif youhave anythingtosendplease themin. Wedoneed your assistance, therearelots ofcollec knowledge,ons, info totapinto!So, Ar photos,cles, badgesto sell/swop, ideas, suggesandons for future publica ons canbesentin atany me, is importantif weare sustaintofour peryear

Additional thanks to the WCML and MRC Warwick for the help they give us whenever we ask them for information, tremendous assets for the movement.

If all goes to plan, we will be looking at the ASSET/AScW/ASTMS unions in the next edition so if you would like to add anything, badges, membership cards, leaflets, photos, please send them in.

We do need your assistance, there are lots of collections, knowledge, and info to tap into!

So, Articles, photos, badges to sell/swop, ideas, and suggestions for future publications can be sent in at any time, this is important if we are to sustain four publications per year which is getting increasingly difficult to achieve.

The Trade Union Badge Collectors Society is sponsored by the Communication Workers Union

Metal workers unions family tree

18 Australian clothing unions family tree

National Society of Metal Mechanics

The Trade Union was founded in Birmingham in 1872 as the Amalgamated Brassworkers Society led by William John Davis.

It soon changed its name to the National Society of Amalgamated Brassworkers, and then in 1905 changed its name to the National Society of Amalgamated Brassworkers and Metal Mechanics

William John Davis was Born in Birmingham, he began working in a Brass Foundry and in 1871 was a founder member of the Union, increasing the union’s membership to 6,000 in the first year as General Secretary.

GFTU and retired in 1921.

The National Society of Metal, Wire and Tube Makers 1896, records of the Organisation are in complete, and it is difficult to be certain what the relationship was between them and the National Society of Brassworkers and Metal Mechanics, they did have the same General Secretary, W J Davis.

In 1911 it became the National Society of Brassworkers and Metal Mechanics.

The figure in the centre of the Brass workers/NSMM has been described as the biblical figure , the first brass worker. However, the former General Secretary of NSMM has stated that the figure represents Hercules skinning the Nemean lion. A close look at the figure does indeed show a figure skinning a lion.

And the National Society of Brass and Metal Mechanics in 1919 leading to the National Society of Metal Mechanics 1945-1985 merging with TASS

In 1883 he stood down as G.S.

National Amalgamated Society of Brass Workers 1890 Strike medal 40mm Brass also in copper

National Amalgamated Society of Brass Workers 1890 Strike medal 40mm

National Amalgamated Society of Brass Workers 1890 Strike medal 40mm gun metal also in silver

National Amalgamated Society of Brass Workers 1890 Strike medal 40mm

National Amalgamated Society of Brass Workers 27mm also in chrome

National Amalgamated Society of Brass Workers

National Amalgamated Society of Brass Workers 27mm also in chrome

National Amalgamated Society of Brass Workers Shop Steward

National Society of Metal Mechanics 25mm also in blue/brass

National Society of Metal Mechanics 20mm also in 28mm brass

National Society of Metal Mechanics Shop Steward 30mm x 32mm

National Society of Metal Mechanics Delegate

National Society of Metal Mechanics centenary 24mm x 27mm

National Society of Metal Mechanics 42mm steel issued on merger with TASS

National Society of Metal Mechanics 42mm steel issued on merger with TASS

National Amalgamated Society of Brass Workers dues stamp

National Amalgamated Society of Metal Wire and Tube Makers 42mm

National Amalgamated Society of Metal Wire and Tube Makers 42mm

National Amalgamated Society of Metal Wire and Tube Workers 24mm

National Amalgamated Society of Metal Wire and Tube Makers 24mm

National Amalgamated Society of Metal Wire and Tube Makers 24mm

The National Union of Sheet Metal Workers

Coppersmiths Heating and Domestic Engineers

The Amalgamated Tin Plate Workers of Birmingham, Wolverhampton and District was formed in 1876 by the federation of the Wolverhampton Operative TinPlate Workers' Society, the Wolverhampton Co-operative Tin Plate Workers' Society and the Birmingham Operative Tin Plate Workers' Society, which all kept their individual identities.

In 1889, the Amalgamated Society formed the basis for the National Amalgamated TinPlate Workers of Great Britain, when it extended its membership outside the West Midlands. This also acted as a loose federation of a number of local societies and was renamed the National Amalgamated Tin and Iron Plate, Sheet Metal Workers and Braziers in 1902 and the National Amalgamated Sheet Metal Workers and Braziers in 1908

National Union of Sheet Metal Workers and Braziers

The National Society of Coppersmiths, Braziers and Metalworkers and the National Union of Sheet Metal Workers and Braziers merged in 1959 to form the National Union of Sheet Metal Workers and Coppersmiths.

In 1920 the affiliated societies fully amalgamated to form the

The London Friendly Society of Workers in Copper was established in 1846. It changed its name to the London Friendly Society of Coppersmiths in about 1869, to the London and Provincial Friendly Society of Coppersmiths in about 1892, to the London and Provincial Society of Coppersmiths in 1901, to the London and Provincial Society of Coppersmiths and Metalworkers in 1909, and to the National Society of Coppersmiths, Braziers and Metalworkers

The Amalgamated Society of Kitchen Range, Hot Water and General Fitters, the Amalgamated Society of Kitchen Range, Stove Grate, Gas Stove, Hot Water, Art Metal and other Smiths and Fitters connected with the above Trades, the Amalgamated Society of Whitesmiths, Domestic Engineers and General Pipe Fitters and the Birmingham Society of Hot Water and Steam Engineers merged in 1908 to form the National Union of Operative Heating and Domestic Engineers, Whitesmiths and General Ironworkers.

By 1920 the union had been renamed the National Union of Operative Heating and Domestic Engineers and General Metal Workers.

in 1948 the union became the National Union of Operative Heating, Domestic and Ventilating Engineers and General Metal Workers and in 1956 it became the Heating and Domestic Engineers' Union

The Birmingham and Midland Sheet Metal Workers' Society was formed in 1909 when it left the National Amalgamated Association of Tin Plate Workers over a dispute about the level of strike pay. The union remained independent until 1973 when it merged with the National Union of Sheet Metal Workers, Coppersmiths, Heating and Domestic Engineers

The union agreed a merger with the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers (Engineering Section) in1979 but this fell through.

A few years later both the Transport and General Workers Union and the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers Technical Administrative and Supervisory Section AUEW-TASS and in 1983 the union became

In 1967 it amalgamated with the National Union of Sheet Metal Workers and Coppersmiths to form the National Union of Sheet Metal Workers, Coppersmiths, Heating and Domestic Engineers

Birmingham and District Sheet Metal Workers Society Long Service

Heating and Domestic Engineering Union

Heating and Domestic Engineering Union 40 years HMS also in Gold

Heating and Domestic Engineering Union 50 years HMS

Liverpool Tin Plate Workers Society 40mm

National Amalgamated Union of Sheet Metal Workers & Braziers The word union is missing from badge

National Society of Coppersmiths, Braziers & Metal Workers 19mm and 24mm

National Society of Coppersmiths, Braziers & Metal Workers 1946 anniversary 25mm gun metal also in bronze and silver

National Society of Coppersmiths, Braziers & Metal Workers

National Union of Heating & Domestic Engineers

National Union of Operative Heating and Domestic Engineers and General Metal Workers

National Union of Operative Heating and Domestic Engineers and General Metal Workers

National Union of Operative Heating and Domestic and Ventilating Engineers and General Metal Workers

National Union of Sheet Metal Workers and Braziers

National Union of Sheet Metal Workers and Braziers 40 years membership in HMS, Gold and gilt

National Union of Sheet Metal Workers and Coppersmiths 40 years membership Gold

National Union of Sheet Metal Workers Coppersmiths Heating and Domestic Engineers

National Union of Sheet Metal Workers Coppersmiths Heating and Domestic Engineers also with blue scroll

1834-1876

1889

1876-1889 Amalgamated Tin Plate Workers of Birmingham, Wolverhampton and District

1889-1902 National Amalgamated Tin Plate Workers of Great Britain

1902-1908 National Amalgamated Tin and Iron Plate Sheet Metal Workers and Braziers

Aberdeen and District Sheet Metal Workers' Society

Belfast Association of Sheet Metal Workers and Gasfitters.

Bolton Society of Braziers and Sheet Metal Workers

Bradford Tin-Plate Workers' Society

Bristol Tin and Iron Plate Workers' Society

Derby and District Friendly Society of Braziers and Tin Plate Workers

Exeter and District Tin and Iron Plate Workers and Gas Meter Makers' Society.

General Union of Braziers and Sheet Metal Workers

London Society of Sheet Metal Workers, Braziers and Gas Meter Makers

Manchester Society of Braziers and Sheet Metal Workers

Oldham Tin Plate Workers' Society

Operative Braziers and Sheet Metal Workers' Society, Liverpool

Scottish Tin Plate, Brazier and Sheet Metal Workers' Friendly and Protective Society

United Tin Plate Workers of Edinburgh and Leith Protecting and Friendly Society

1902

Leeds and District Trade and Friendly Society of Sheet Metal Workers:

1903

1908-1920 National Amalgamated Sheet Metal Wprkers and Braziers

1909 Birmingham and Midland Sheet Metal Workers Society

Wolverhampton Operative Tin Plate Workers’ Society

Birmingham Cooperative Tin Plate Workers’ Society

Wolverhampton Cooperative Tin Plate Workers’ Society

1872-1887

1887-1898

1908-1920 National Amalgamated Sheet Metal Wprkers and Braziers

1920-1959 National Union of Sheet Metal Workers and Braziers

1846-1910 London and Provincial Society of Coppersmiths

1910-1959 National Society of Coppersmiths Braziers and Metal Workers

Amalgamated Stove Grate and Kitchen Range Fitters Protection Society

Amalgamated Society of Kitchen Range Hot Water Art Metal and Other Fitters Concerned with the Above Trades

1898-1908 United Society of Fitters and Smiths

Amalgamated Society of Whitesmiths Domestic Engineers and General Pipe Fitters

-1908 Birmingham Society of Hot Water and Steam Engineers

1908-1946 National Union of Operative Heating and Domestic Engineers Whitesmiths and General Iron Workers

1948-1956 National Union of Operative Heating and Domestic Engineers and General Iron Workers

1956-1967 Heating and Domestic Engineers Union

-1911 Society of Smiths Fitters Hot Water and Steam Engineers

1959-1967 National Union of Sheet Metal Workers and Coppersmiths

1967- National Union of Sheet Metal Workers Coppersmiths Heating and Domestic Engineers

1909-1973 Birmingham and Midland Sheet Metal Workers Society

1860-1913 Liverpool United Society of Coppersmiths and Braziers

AUEW Technical Administrative and Supervisory Section

Australian clothing trade unions by Neil

Sydney Trades Hall has restored a British made Tutills trade union banner. Our banner collection is composed of mostly Australian made and painted canvas/cotton/linen banners but a couple are from Tutills in their patented silk compound fabric.

The clothing trades has a very similar illustration to that depicted in the Tutills catalogue from 1893.

The sheep seems very Australian merino so perhaps added in Australia, when the name was changed or earlier.

The first mention of a banner that I can find for the Clothing

Towart

Trades Union or its predecessors is 1889 when unions in Sydney held huge demonstrations in support of the London Dock Strike (that was successful with over 15000 people in attendance for a strike half a world away) and helped very much by funds raised in “the colonies”).

The Evening News of 16th September 1889 notes that the Tailors’ Society, with their banner, was near the beginning of the procession. We don’t know if it was the same one, but the banner changes revealed by the conservation of the banner make it a possibility.

One change we discovered in the conservation process was from the Tailors and Tailoresses, an indication that the banner was much older than the 190910 date we had thought, based on a newspaper cutting of its unfurling.

The Broken Hill Barrier Miner reporting in 1892, well before any amalgamation in the capital cities, had an advertisement for a meeting of an amalgamated union:

The following charts the unions development at a federal level to today when it is part of the Construction, Forestry, Mining, Maritime and Energy Union (CFMMEU) Manufacturing Division

Amalgamated Journeymen Tailors Association of New South Wales

1870 - 1907 Tailors Trade Protection Society

1880 - 1907 Tailoresses Association of Melbourne

1890 - ? Cutters & Trimmers Union of New South Wales

1895 - 1917 Pressers Union of New South Wales

1895 - 1917 Pressers Union of New South Wales

1922 - 1924 Federated Clothing & Allied Trades Union

1924 - 1947 Amalgamated Clothing & Allied Trades Union of Australia

1947 - 1992 Clothing & Allied Trades Union of Australia

This guide leaves out the Felt Hatters, registered in 1912 which “flourished from the nineteenth century up until midway through the twentieth century in what was a protected domestic industry.

After 1950 the industry, and consequently, the union began to wane before the multiple onslaught of mechanisation, imports, and fashion.

In 1984, it amalgamated with the Australian Textile Workers' Union and in 1987 became the Amalgamated Footwear and Textile Workers' Union of Australia after another amalgamation, this time with the Australian Boot Trade Employees' Federation.

The boot trades were federally registered in 1908, from earlier unions across Queensland, NSW, Victoria and South Australia.

The Pressers Society was formed in NSW in 1885 and the banner is one of the oldest we have, made in Sydney by Althouse and Geiger Signwriters. It dates from 1889.

As with the tailors, the Pressers would not let women join the union. Instead, women formed the Laundry Workers and the first female delegate to the Labour Council was Creo Stanley who had formed a laundry workers cooperative and union to get better conditions.

The society was exclusively for men, who wielded the "goose" as they called their iron and were very protective of their trade craft. Goose or tailor's goose was an iron name, and this came from the goose-neck curve in some handles. In Scotland people spoke of gusing (goosing) irons.

A Tailors' Society was formed in Melbourne in 1866 but eventually collapsed in 1869 due to financial difficulties. It was refounded in 1870 as the Tailors' Trade Protection Society and began meeting with the Tailoresses' Society in 1905.

In Sydney the Tailors decided to unite in 1875 and sought connections with the Melbourne society almost immediately. Women were excluded and they strongly opposed Chinese workers.

Tailoresses' Association of Melbourne (1882 - 1907)

The Tailoresses' Association of Melbourne, Australia's first female trade union, was established at a meeting held in Trades Hall on 15 December 1882. At this meeting women met in response to attempts by the Melbourne clothing manufacturer Beith Shiess & Co to reduce piece-rate wages. A strike was called on 15 February 1883 when clothing manufacturers had not responded to the log of claims.

As each manufacturer accepted the log, employees resumed work. The strike is generally regarded as instrumental in the establishment of the Shops Commission and the eventual passage of the Factory Act. When the new Factory Act was passed in 1885, the recommendations of the March 1884 Royal Commission regarding outwork were not incorporated and working conditions in the industry were not substantially affected by its operation.

In 1906, the Tailoresses' Union amalgamated with the Tailors' Society.

'We have no redress unless we strike': class, gender and activism in the Melbourne Tailoresses' strike, 1882-83 by Danielle Thornton (in Labour History May 2009) is a great review of that strike. (Bloomsbury, 2011)

The strike of 1883 is regarded as a precursor to the development of what we call the “new unionism” usually attributed to the Dockers Tanner Strike of 1889 in the UK. The historian of the Matchgirls dispute, Louise Raw, gives credit to the success of the Victorian Tailoresses in her terrific book Striking a Light (Bloomsbury, 2011)

The Victorian Pressers' Union, formed in 1884, amalgamated with the Cutters' & Joiners' Union in 1902 to form the Victorian Clothing Operatives' Union. In 1907 these groups combined to form the Victorian Branch of the Federated Clothing Trades

Union of the Commonwealth of Australia. As elements of the trade incorporated into the union, it changed names to the Federated Clothing & Allied Trades Union in 1922, the Amalgamated Clothing & Allied Trades Union in 1924 and the Clothing & Allied Trades Union of Australia in 1947. In 1992 another saw change of name, this time to the Textile Clothing & Footwear Union of Australia.

We also have from the NSW branch these very nice modern banners (would guess 1960s)

Australian Textile Workers Union

Australian Textile Workers Union

Australian Textile Workers Union Tasmanian Branch

Australian Textile Workers Union Life Member

General Textile Workers Federation of Australia

General Textile Workers Federation of Australia

General Textile Workers Union New South Wales

Clothing Trades Union

Clothing Trades Union New South Wales Branch Life Member

Clothing Trades Union Cutter

Federated Felt Hatting Employees Union of Australasia

Federated Felt Hatting Employees Union of Australasia

Australian Boot Trade Employees Federation

Australian Boot Trade Employees Federation Silver

Australian Boot Trade Employees Federation Life Member

Australian Boot Trade Employees Federation Red Cross Queen Comptotion

Boot Operators Rough Stuff Cutters Union of New South Wales

Amalgamated Footwear and Textile Workers Union of Australia

Textile Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia

Textile Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia Shop Steward

1910-1913 Federated Woollen Mills Operatives Union of Australia

1913-1919 General Textile Workers Federation of Australia

1919-1984 Australian Textile Workers Union

1984-1987 Australian Textile Workers Union

Hatting Employees Union of Australasia

1950-1984 Federated Felt Hatting & Allied Trades Employees Union of Australia

2018 Construction Forestry Maritime Mining and Energy Union

1992-2018 Textile Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia

1987-1992 Amalgamated Footwear & Textile Workers Union of Australia

1947-1992 Clothing and Allied Trades Union of Australia

1908-1987 Australian Boot Trade Employees Federation

1907-1922 Federated Clothing Trades of the Commonwealth of Australia

1922-1924 Federated Clothing and Allied Trades Union

1924-1947 Amalgamated Clothing and Allied Trades Union of Australia

1911-1950 Federated Straw Hatters Association of Australia

1905-1950 Victorian Clothing Operatives Union

Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union

Maritime Union of Australia

United Tech & Allied Workers

In 2020 our sponsoring union, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) established a stand-alone National branch representing workers in “IT” the United Tech & Allied Workers (UTAW).

Organising Programmers, Graphic designers, game developers, specialist product teams and testers in small startups and giant companies.

The IT sector employs an estimated 2 million workers but has low Trade Union membership levels.

The UTAW branch have recruited in Apple, Google, Monzo, and Microsoft, they are well organised and

active which is very encouraging, not an easy task with these companies notoriously anti-Union and making it as difficult as possible using Union bashing tactics.

UTAW also continues to make International Solidarity part of its organising core and has strong ties with Tech Unions

and workers movements with its USA counterparts, the same applies with FSU and DATA-CWU Ireland.

The Tech Industry is changing, its culture is changing, and the opportunity is there to Organise.

Source CWU members “The Voice” journal.

Follow up from previous issues, badges for identification and anything else you want to send in.

MADE BY LABOUR – A MATERIAL AND VISUAL HISTORY OF BRITISH LABOUR

c.1780-1924

NICK MANSFILED and MARTIN WRIGHT

University of Wales Press, Hardback, £18.99. 262 pages.

ISBN 978-1-83772-006-4

This beautifully produced book gives an exceptionally clear and detailed historical analysis of the working-class movement during the long nineteenth century. It does this, in the bulk of the book, through colour illustrations of 93 key objects, each of which has an essay on its own significance as well as its relevance to a wider historical context. Some of these objects will be familiar to readers, but most will not. This major segment is prefaced with a detailed discussion of what we mean by

significance as well as its relevance to a wider historical context. Some of these objects will be familiar to readers, but most will not. This major segment is prefaced with a detailed discussion of what we mean by material culture and labour history and is concluded by a review of what we decide to collect and preserve and the rationale behind that.

Visually this is a very attractive book, and one which is destined to become a standard reference for many years to come. For trade union badge collectors it will give your collections a greater historical context.