Cardroom Amalgamation

The Cardroom Amalgamation or Cardroom Workers' Amalgamation (CWA)[1] was a British trade union which existed between 1886 and 1974. It represented workers in the cotton textile industry.

For the British trade union of the 1920s and 1930s, see National Union of Textile Workers.
Cardroom Amalgamation
Full nameAmalgamated Association of Card and Blowing and Ring Room Operatives
Founded1886
Date dissolved1974
Merged intoAmalgamated Textile Workers' Union
Members52,000 (1910)
AffiliationTUC, UTFWA
CountryUnited Kingdom

History

The union was founded in 1886 as the Amalgamated Association of Card and Blowing Room Operatives, by the amalgamation of a few small, local unions. This followed the Oldham weavers' strike of 1885, which had led to non-unionised cardroom workers being locked out and losing their wages.[2]

Affiliates of the union were:

Union[3]FoundedAffiliatedMembership (1907)[4]Notes
Accrington188618861,415Merged into North East Lancashire
Ashton18651886N/AMerged into South East Lancashire 1887
Bacup and District1889189082Disaffiliated 1893
Bamber Bridge and District19221922N/ADissolved 1960s
Blackburn and District188318861,755Merged into Wigan, Blackburn and District about 1970
Bollington1880s1890N/ADisaffiliated 1892
Bolton and District185818868,500
Bury and District187918861,340
Glossop18861886133Merged into Hyde and District 1909
Hadfield18601886164Merged into Hyde and District 1908
Heywood186418881,356Merged into Rochdale 1967
Huddersfield and District18911892Disaffiliated 1892
Hullc.18901892N/ADissolved about 1894
Hyde and District186018862,128Merged into South East Lancashire and Cheshire 1967
Macclesfield and District18851886153Dissolved 1921
Manchesterc.18801886N/ADisaffiliated 1889–1891 and from 1893
Mossley18751886743Dissolved 1942
North East Lancashire18861886
Oldham1880188616,211
Oldham Cop-Packers19081914N/ADissolved 1967
Preston189718971,000Predecessor held membership 1886–1891; merged into North East Lancashire 1961
Rochdale187918862,900
RadcliffeUnknown1886N/AMerged into Bury 1890
Roller Coverers19201920N/ADissolved 1960s
Salford and District18951895N/ADissolved 1898
South East Lancashire188718875,333Merged into South East Lancashire and Cheshire 1967
Stalybridge18851886N/AMerged into South East Lancashire 1887
Sowerby Bridge and District18921892N/ADisaffiliated later in 1892
Stockport185918861,700Merged into South East Lancashire and Cheshire 1967
Warrington18921893N/ADisaffiliated 1894, predecessor affiliated in 1889
Wigan and District188818881,647Merged into Wigan and Blackburn 1967

The union represented a wide range of workers in the textile industry, and did not discriminate on the basis of occupation or skill. The core of the union's membership were the strippers and grinders, skilled adult male mechanics, who maintained the carding engines. Almost all strippers and grinders were union members.[5] The CWA also organised less skilled female ring spinners and other mill operatives. From 1904 onwards the only members required to have completed an apprenticeship were the strippers-and-grinders.[2]

The CWA grew rapidly and by 1910 it had 52,000 members.[5] In 1924, it changed its name to the Amalgamated Association of Card and Blowing and Ring Room Operatives, and in 1952 it became the National Association of Card, Blowing and Ring Room Operatives, before adopting its final name, the National Union of Textile and Allied Workers (NUTAW), in 1968.[3]

The CWA was more aggressive in its attitude towards negotiating with employers than the other major cotton unions and by the mid-1960s the wages of strippers and grinders equalled those of mule spinners, traditionally the highest-paid textile workers.[6]

In 1974, the union merged with the Amalgamated Weavers' Association, to form the Amalgamated Textile Workers' Union.[3]

General secretaries
1886: William Mullin
1920: William Thomasson
1935: Alfred Roberts
1962: Joe King

Presidents
1886: George Silk
c.1890: Enoch Jones
1896: James Crinion
1926: Joseph Frayne
1936: Archie Robertson
1953: Harold Chorlton
1964: Jim Browning
1972: Roy Bennett
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References
  1. Joseph L. White, The Limits of Trade Union Militancy, p.240, note 9
  2. Penn, Roger (1984). Skilled Workers in the Class Structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 65–67. ISBN 978 0 521 25455 7. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  3. Marsh, Arthur; Ryan, Victoria; Smethurst, John B. (1994). Historical Directory of Trade Unions. 4. Farnham: Ashgate. pp. 62–89, 205. ISBN 9780859679008.
  4. Report on Trade Unions in 1905-1907. London: Board of Trade. 1909. p. 26–27.
  5. White, Joseph L. (1978). The Limits of Trade Union Militancy: The Lancashire Textile Workers, 1910-1914. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 76. ISBN 0-313-20029-7.
  6. White, Joseph L. (1978). The Limits of Trade Union Militancy: The Lancashire Textile Workers, 1910-1914. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 240. ISBN 0-313-20029-7.
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