The history of the T&G
Trade unions started with the industrialisation of the late
18th and the 19th centuries, which drew
thousands of workers together in towns and cities to live and work
in poverty. The success of British industry in the hundred years
from 1780 was built on the exploitation of hundreds of thousands of
workers who worked 14 to 18 hours a day for miserable wages in
unsafe factories, and lived in bare and comfortless homes.
Workers realised they could only fight ruthless employers and
inhuman working conditions by banding together, and so trade unions
were born - and fiercely opposed by the owners of industry.
The most celebrated pioneers of British trade unionism are the
Tolpuddle Martyrs, six Dorset farm labourers deported to Australia
for joining a union in 1834.
As communications improved, the influence of trade unionism
grew. 1868 saw the birth of the Trades Union Congress, and the
1870s and 1880s brought organisation to a variety of key
industries: gas workers, dockers, railwaymen, farm workers,
builders, labourers, etc. Increasingly, trade unionists were able
to apply politicial pressure - to give working people the
vote, legalise trade unionism and bring in laws to improve
conditions at work. In 1885, 11 trade unionists were elected to
Parliament, as members of the Liberal Party.
From the end of the 1880s a new kind of trade unionism
flourished, fired by economic depression, increased social
awareness, and the spread of socialist ideas and thought. This 'new
unionism' brought organisation to large numbers of unskilled
workers, encouraged by the successes of groups like the London
gasworkers in 1888, in their demands for a three-shift system
(which meant an eight-hour day), the London dockers in their strike
for a rate of six pence an hour (the "docker's tanner") and the
Bryant and May matchgirls.
It differed from established trade unionism in both organisation
and tactics. Catering for the unskilled and poorly paid, its unions
recruited across industrial barriers. Contributions and entrance
fees were low; so were the financial benefits. The organisers saw
the role of trade unionism as active rather than passive - to win
improvements from employers by industrial action, rather than to
look after members in times of hardship.
1900 saw a Labour Representation Committee formed by a special
conference of trade unionists and socialists called together by the
TUC's Parliamentary Committee. Twenty-nine members of the committee
were elected to Parliament in 1906 and the Labour Party was
born - a key factor in pushing the Liberal government to
introduce a variety of social reforms. Among these were
compensation for industrial injuries and state pensions, which laid
the foundations of our present system of social insurance and
marked the beginning of the welfare state.
The years before the first world war were a period of mounting
industrial militancy. Hundreds of thousands of miners, transport
workers and railway workers were involved in strikes, often
confronting the police and the army. The number of workers involved
in disputes rose from 93,000 in 1905 to 1,463,000 in 1912.
The 1914-18 war suspended the union militancy, but
when peace came trade unions realised they had to reorganise to
address a new economy in which many industries were in
crisis. Two dockers' unions took the initiative in calling
for the establishment of a new trade union to create "the best form
of organisation to meet the new combination of capital in the
shipping world."
The T&G was formed on 1 January 1922, with 350,000 members
from 14 unions, including dockers, stevedores, lightermen, factory
workers, transport workers and clerks. The union's first general
secretary - and the architect of the amalgamation - was
Ernest Bevin.
From its foundation the T&G has played a leading
part in the wider labour movement. Its history is
inseparable from that of the whole trade union movement and of the
Labour Party.
The major events of the 1920s were the shortlived Labour
governments of 1924 and 1929, and the general strike of 1926. The
general strike was one of the most significant events in
working-class history in the 20th century and the T&G was
centrally involved. The coal owners wanted to cut the already low
wages paid to miners and were supported by the government. Nearly a
million miners refused to accept the demand for a longer working
day and lower wages, which was recognised by the whole trade union
movement as an attack on the living standards of all working
people.
The TUC general council called a general strike which was
supported by all the country's trade unions, including the 353,000
members of the T&G. The strike, which closed factories,
transport and services throughout Britain, was called off after
nine days without any concession by coal-owners or government. It
was a defeat the unions did not fully recover from for a
generation, as concerted government action reduced union membership
and funds.
The T&G affiliated to the Labour Party from the beginning
and was active in supporting the election of minority Labour
governments in 1924 and 1929. The second Labour government, led by
Ramsay MacDonald, was engulfed by the worldwide economic crisis
which began in 1929. Millions of British workers were made
unemployed as factories, mills and mines closed throughout the
country. Whole communities became destitute.
The Labour government was unable to address these problems and
proposed balancing the books by reducing the already meagre
unemployment benefit. This led to MacDonald abandoning the Labour
Party and forming a 'national government' with the Liberal and
Conservative parties. Throughout this crisis, the T&G and the
other affiliated unions remained loyal to the Labour Party,
ensuring that the betrayal of 1931 did not result in its
destruction. Ernest Bevin played a major part in stabilising and
rebuilding the party through the difficult years of the 1930s.
These years included the struggle against Mosley fascism at home
and Franquist fascism abroad - the T&G was prominent.
Thousands of British workers went to fight for the Spanish republic
as part of the International Brigades, convinced that unless
fascism was stopped in Spain, it would advance elsewhere. Although
the Spanish republic was defeated and it took a world war to stop
fascism in the end, the heroism of the International Brigades,
which included in their number subsequent T&G general secretary
Jack Jones, remains celebrated. A memorial to their bravery is on
display in Transport House.
It was during this period that the union started to develop its
organisation and become more systematic about recruitment, often in
the face of hostility from employers. The T&G pioneered the
concept of shop stewards, who became both the front line in dealing
with workplace problems and a key part of the union's democratic
structure.
The war years 1939-45
The second world war had a profound effect on the trade
union movement. In the factories and at all levels of national life
the unions played a key role in the successful fight against
fascism.
In 1940 Winston Churchill set up a coalition government -
but realised the importance of winning the support of the unions.
He took the unusual step of bringing Ernest Bevin into the
government as minister for labour. Bevin held this post with
distinction throughout the war years. When the first majority
Labour government was elected in the landslide of 1945, Bevin
became foreign secretary.
The confidence of trade unions grew from the spirit and
solidarity established during the war years. For instance, the
T&G in Coventry led the demand for joint production committees
which were officially accepted in 1942. This established the
principle of consultative rights on matters relating to planning
and organising production for workers and over 4,500 such
committees were established in the engineering and aircraft
industries, ordnance factories and dockyards. They laid the basis
for the trade unions' role over the next 30 years.
As minister for labour Bevin brought in many workplace reforms
including better pay and conditions and improved welfare standards.
The massive influx of new workers into industry boosted trade union
membership, and as a result, the T&G passed the one million
members mark in 1942. Many women joined the workforce and the
T&G fought, and in many cases won, the principle of equal pay
for equal work for women members, such as women bus conductors.
During the 1940s, 50s and 60s, trade unions grew in size
and influence and were vital to the joint regulation of
industry. In the 1960s and 1970s in particular, the
T&G grew rapidly as a result of relatively full employment, the
strength of the general trade union movement and a favourable
political environment. By 1970 membership passed the 1.5 million
mark and in 1977 it was over two million - the highest number
any trade union in this country has ever attained.
The election of an aggressively anti-union Tory government in
1979, however, led to a sustained attack on trade unionism, which,
coupled with the decline of traditional industries and high
unemployment, led to a period of sustained decline. However, some
of this decline (the T&G's membership has more than halved
since 1979) has been due to changes in the structure and nature of
the workforce which will not be reversed.
The union responded to some of these changes by launching the
Link-Up campaign in 1987. This sought to extend trade union
organisation to the growing number of temporary and part-time
workers, the great majority of them women, employed in the British
economy. The campaign raised recruitment to a rate of over 200,000
per year - a major achievement, but one that did no more than
cancel out losses due to the redundancies and closures which have
repeatedly swept through British industry and to the anti-union
attitude of many employers.
In the 1990s the union combined political and industrial
pressure to crusade against the evil of low pay that had spread
like a virus through the economy since the 1979 election returned
the Tories to office. The £4 Now campaign, to win a pay rate of at
least £4 an hour for all members not already earning as much,
secured pay increases for thousands of workers, while pressure from
the T&G and other unions won a commitment from the Labour Party
to introduce a national minimum wage aimed at eliminating the
scandal of poverty pay once and for all. When Labour was elected in
the 1997 landslide election, establishing a national minimum wage
was one of its earliest achievements.
The two Labour governments of 1997 and 2001 have seen some
advances for the union movement and for British workers, such as
the right to organise, a minimum wage, and a stable economy, but
there is still plenty for the T&G to fight for - low pay
is still a scandal, the pensions of hard-working people are at
risk, and privatisation threatens the security of many.
As a new millennium begins, trade unions are more than ever
aware of what the earliest combinations of workers learned 200
years ago - that only through unity and organisation can the
cause of working men and women be advanced.
Employers have created global corporations capable of holding
governments, let alone workers, to ransom. Today, more than ever,
workers need the strength of a trade union around them.
For the T&G, having members throughout industry and the
services has meant growth and stability during industrial struggles
and the ups and downs of the economy. It has meant being able to
fight on, when others have gone to the wall.
The strength and depth of its organisation means that the
T&G is as relevant for the workers of the future - in
high-tech industries or the caring services - as it is for
lightermen, whose origins lie with the guilds of the Middle
Ages.
As a new millennium began, trade unions are more than ever aware
of what the earliest combinations of workers learned 200 years
ago - that only through unity and organisation can the cause
of working men and women be advanced. Employers have created global
corporations capable of holding governments, let alone workers, to
ransom. Today, more than ever, workers need the strength of a trade
union around them.
For the T&G, having members throughout industry and the
services has meant growth and stability during industrial struggles
and the ups and downs of the economy. It has meant being able to
fight on, when others have gone to the wall. The strength and
depth of its organisation means that the T&G is as relevant for
the workers of the future - in high-tech industries or the
caring services - as it is for lightermen, whose origins lie
with the guilds of the Middle Ages. And when the historic
opportunity came to build a new union, Unite, the T&G and
Amicus joined to form Britain's biggest union.
