Cardroom Amalgamation

English trade union

For the British trade union of the 1920s and 1930s, see National Union of Textile Workers.

Cardroom Amalgamation

Amalgamated Association of Card and Blowing and Ring Room Operatives

Merged into| Amalgamated Textile Workers' Union
Founded| 1886
Dissolved| 1974
Headquarters| 81 Fountain Street, Manchester
Location|

* United Kingdom

Members| 52,000 (1910)
Affiliations| TUC, UTFWA

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.

## History

[edit]

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] | Founded | Affiliated | Membership (1907)[4] | Notes

|
|
|
|

Accrington | 1886 | 1886 | 1,415 | Merged into North East Lancashire
Ashton | 1865 | 1886 | N/A | Merged into South East Lancashire 1887
Bacup and District | 1889 | 1890 | 82 | Disaffiliated 1893
Bamber Bridge and District | 1922 | 1922 | N/A | Dissolved 1960s
Blackburn and District | 1883 | 1886 | 1,755 | Merged into Wigan, Blackburn and District about 1970
Bollington | 1880s | 1890 | N/A | Disaffiliated 1892
Bolton and District | 1858 | 1886 | 8,500 |
Bury and District | 1879 | 1886 | 1,340 |
Glossop | 1886 | 1886 | 133 | Merged into Hyde and District 1909
Hadfield | 1860 | 1886 | 164 | Merged into Hyde and District 1908
Heywood | 1864 | 1888 | 1,356 | Merged into Rochdale 1967
Huddersfield and District | 1891 | 1892 |  | Disaffiliated 1892
Hull | c.1890 | 1892 | N/A | Dissolved about 1894
Hyde and District | 1860 | 1886 | 2,128 | Merged into South East Lancashire and Cheshire 1967
Macclesfield and District | 1885 | 1886 | 153 | Dissolved 1921
Manchester | c.1880 | 1886 | N/A | Disaffiliated 1889-1891 and from 1893
Mossley | 1875 | 1886 | 743 | Dissolved 1942
North East Lancashire | 1886 | 1886 |  |
Oldham | 1880 | 1886 | 16,211 |
Oldham Cop-Packers | 1908 | 1914 | N/A | Dissolved 1967
Preston | 1897 | 1897 | 1,000 | Predecessor held membership 1886-1891; merged into North East Lancashire 1961
Rochdale | 1879 | 1886 | 2,900 |
Radcliffe | Unknown | 1886 | N/A | Merged into Bury 1890
Roller Coverers | 1920 | 1920 | N/A | Dissolved 1960s
Salford and District | 1895 | 1895 | N/A | Dissolved 1898
South East Lancashire | 1887 | 1887 | 5,333 | Merged into South East Lancashire and Cheshire 1967
Stalybridge | 1885 | 1886 | N/A | Merged into South East Lancashire 1887
Sowerby Bridge and District | 1892 | 1892 | N/A | Disaffiliated later in 1892
Stockport | 1859 | 1886 | 1,700 | Merged into South East Lancashire and Cheshire 1967
Warrington | 1892 | 1893 | N/A | Disaffiliated 1894, predecessor affiliated in 1889
Wigan and District | 1888 | 1888 | 1,647 | Merged 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

[edit]

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

## Presidents

[edit]

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

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Joseph L. White, The Limits of Trade Union Militancy, p.240, note 9
2. ^ a b 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. ^ a b c Marsh, Arthur; Ryan, Victoria; Smethurst, John B. (1994). Historical Directory of Trade Unions. Vol. 4\. Farnham: Ashgate. pp. 62–89, 205. ISBN 9780859679008.
4. ^ Report on Trade Unions in 1905-1907. London: Board of Trade. 1909. pp. 26–27.
5. ^ a b 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.

* v
* t
* e

Lancashire cotton

Architects|

* David Bellhouse
* Bradshaw Gass & Hope
* F.W. Dixon & Son
* Edward Potts
* Stott
* Stott and Sons
* Sidney Stott (later Sir Philip)

Engine makers|

* Daniel Adamson
* Ashton Frost
* Ashworth & Parker
* Bateman & Sherratt
* Boulton & Watt
* Browett, Lindley & Co
* Buckley & Taylor
* Carels Frères
* Clayton, Goodfellow & Co
* Earnshaw & Holt
* Fairbairn
* W & J Galloway & Sons
* Benjamin Goodfellow
* B. Hick and Sons / Hick, Hargreaves & Co
* John Musgrave & Sons
* J & W McNaught
* Petrie of Rochdale
* William Roberts & Co of Nelson
* George Saxon
* Scott & Hodgson
* Urmson & Thompson
* Yates & Thom / Yates of Blackburn
* Willans & Robinson
* J & E Wood
* Woolstenhulmes & Rye

Machinery makers|

* Brooks & Doxey
* Butterworth & Dickinson
* Curtis, Parr & Walton
* Dobson & Barlow
* John Hetherington & Sons
* Joseph Hibbert
* John Pilling and Sons
* Harling & Todd
* Howard & Bullough
* Geo. Hattersley
* Asa Lees
* Mather & Platt
* Parr, Curtis & Madely
* British Northrop Loom Co
* Pemberton & Co
* Platt Brothers
* Taylor, Lang & Co
* Textile Machinery Makers
* Tweedales & Smalley
* T. Wildman & Sons

Mill owners|

* Elkanah Armitage
* Henry Ashworth
* Hugh Birley
* Hugh Hornby Birley
* Joseph Brotherton
* James Burton
* Peter Drinkwater
* Nathaniel Eckersley
* John Fielden
* William Gray
* Hannah Greg
* Samuel Greg
* Richard Howarth
* William Houldsworth
* John Kennedy
* George Augustus Lee
* Charles Macintosh
* Hugh Mason
* Samuel Oldknow
* Robert Peel
* John Rylands
* Thomas Whitehead and Brothers

Limited companies|

* Oldham Limiteds
* Fine Spinners and Doublers
* Lancashire Cotton Corporation
* Bagley & Wright
* Combined Egyptian Mills
* Courtaulds
* James Burton & Sons
* Amalgamated Cotton Mills Trust

Industrial processes|

* Textile manufacturing
* Cotton-spinning machinery
* DREF friction spinning
* Magnetic ring spinning
* Open-end spinning
* Ring spinning
* Spinning frame
* Spinning jenny
* Spinning mule
* Carding
* Steaming
* Water frame
* Roberts Loom
* Lancashire Loom
* Northrop Loom
* Air-jet loom
* Rapier loom
* Dandy loom
* Lancashire boiler

Associations|

* Amalgamated Association of Beamers, Twisters and Drawers (Hand and Machine)
* Amalgamated Association of Operative Cotton Spinners
* Amalgamated Textile Warehousemen's Association
* Amalgamated Textile Workers' Union
* Amalgamated Weavers' Association
* Cardroom Amalgamation
* General Union of Lancashire and Yorkshire Warp Dressers' Association
* General Union of Loom Overlookers
* Lancashire Amalgamated Tape Sizers' Friendly Society
* North East Lancashire Amalgamated Weavers' Association
* Northern Counties Textile Trades Federation
* The Textile Institute
* United Textile Factory Workers' Association

Employment practices|

* More looms
* Kissing the shuttle
* Mule spinners' cancer
* Piece-rate list

Lists of mills|

* LCC mills
* Bolton
* Bury
* Cheshire
* Derbyshire
* Lancashire
* Manchester
* Oldham (borough)
* Preston
* Rochdale
* Salford
* Stockport
* Tameside
* Wigan
* Yorkshire

Museums|

* Bancroft Shed
* Helmshore Mills
* Queen Street Mill
* Weavers' Triangle
* Quarry Bank Mill, Styal

Pioneers|

* Richard Arkwright
* Samuel Crompton
* Peter Foxcroft
* James Hargreaves
* Thomas Highs
* John Kay (flying shuttle)
* John Kay (spinning frame)
* Robert Owen

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* United States

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