Description

Admin History:

Fourteen trade unions came together in 1922 to form the Transport and General Workers Union. These were: the Amalgamated Society of Watermen, Lightermen and Bargemen; the Amalgamated Carters, Lorrymen and Motormen's Union; the Amalgamated Association of Carters and Motormen; the Associated Horsemen's Union; the Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Workers' Union of Great Britain and Ireland; the Labour Protection League; the National Amalgamated Labourers' Union of Great Britain and Ireland; the National Union of Docks, Wharves and Shipping Staffs; the National Association of Ships' Clerks, Grain Weighers and Coalmeters; the National Union of Vehicle Workers; the National Amalgamated Coal Porters' Union of Inland and Seaborne Coal Workers; the North of England Trimmers and Teemers' Association; the North of Scotland Horse and Motormen's Association; and the United Vehicle Workers. Over time many other unions have been absorbed, notably the National Union of Dock, Riverside and General Workers in Great Britain and Ireland in 1922, the Workers' Union in 1929, the National Association of Operative Plasterers in 1968, the Chemical Workers' Union in 1971, the National Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers in 1981, and the National Union of Dyers, Bleachers and Textile Workers in 1982.

Although the port of Hull was the third largest after London and Liverpool at the beginning of the twentieth century, employing 13,000 dockers at its peak, the history of the docks has not yet been written [Davies, p.180]. This is due in part to the lack of surviving primary sources.

Description:

These records were created or received by Brian Barker in his capacity as Regional Docks and Waterways Officer. Region 10 of the TGWU covered mainly Hull and Goole. Unfortunately, the records do not go back much beyond the early 1960s, and they are therefore most useful for studying the 1970s and 1980s. It is not known what happened to earlier records dating back to 1922, and the survival rate of records of predecessor unions at local level is very patchy.