The National Union of Boots and Shoe Operatives was established in Stafford in 1874. By 1918 the union could report that over 20,000 of its members were in military service and over 2,000 had been killed. Over £80,000 had been paid to keep serving members in benefit; £12,000 had been paid out in death benefit
An ambulance had been purchased and sent to France
National Union of Boots and Shoe Operatives though not the largest union in the country - the industry precluded that - was one of the most enlightened, most progressive, most successful, and for it size, most influential in Great Britain, or indeed, "in the whole world"
Membership
49,000 in 1914
83,000 in 1918
The National Union of Boots and Shoe Operatives union was established in 1874
Delegates to the first conference in Northampton included
Hull - J. Chapman
Birmingam - G. Sedgwick
Stafford H. Greenwood
Wolverhampton F Weare
Walsall - H. Clements
Leicester - J. Tilley
Dundee J. Forbes
Ansty - J. Bosworth
Nottingham N. Coyne
Arbroath J. Irving
Dublin J. Kelly
Leicester A. Clark
Glasgow J. O' Hara
Stafford J. Simmons
Leicester M. Leader
Northampton W. C. France
Leicester C. Smith
Newcastle - J. Collins
Bristol - T. Heron
New machinery was introduced cost and not necessarily improve quality. Each innovation involved a further splitting up of the productive process "The division of labour in a modern bookmaking establishment is enough to drive the art critic mad", John Ruskin,
John Bedford Leno (Uxbridge) The art of boot and shoe making John Beford Leno 1885
new unionism send for John Burns socialist
"I for one am not going to follow the new trade unionism of dragging men through the gutter with flags and big drums" friend of Freak at Shoreditch town hall
London strike 24th March 1890
The national union of clickers and rough stuff cutters was established in London in 1891 had six or seven branches and about 2,000 members . it prime objective was the limitation of boy labour it had ambitious plans "capture Ipswich, attack Colchester then go into the Midlands and organise the whole country if possible" The Norwich union of clickers and rough stuff cutters merged into the National union in 1894 as Norwich No2 Branch with Walter R Smith as president of the Norwich union in 1893
Women delegates first attended national conference im 1904 Jane Bell-Richards and Ruth Woolley from Leicester
Elizabeth "Lizzie" Willson elected secretary Leicester Women's section in 1906 - the Leicester women's section had been formed in 1904 with 1,213 members
"The British National Union of Women's Shoe Operatives. She was the first women elected to the executive
Ted Poulton was in many was a pro type of the twentieth century trade union leader
a sober and responsible negotiator; extremely able on organisation and administration; committed to the pursuit of a welfare state by constitutional political action; holder of unpaid office in a wide and diverse range of voluntary and statutory bodies; invariably overburdened with a mass of committee work which falls to the over willing horse; Poulton for a mid twentieth century reader is a familiar figure
He took over the general secretaryship with an already impressive record
born in Northampton in 1865 he worked for eight years at the bench and became branch secretary at he age of twenty five. this post he was still occupying in 1908. in 1890 he started the trade union club in Northampton and became its first secretary; in 1892 he was president of the local trades union council and played an important part in forming the Midlands federations of trades union councils, in 1895 he became the first "direct labour" representative on the Northampton school board; in 1898 the first working man alderman on Northampton town council; in 1906 the first working man mayor of Northampton. he was also a member of the Northampton technical institute committee; governor of Northampton general hospital; active in Sunday school work (he was a lifelong Wesleyan) s teacher, secretary and superintendent. When in 1902 the Education Act did away with School Boards he became Chairman of the Education committee of Northampton Town Council
Poulton was no believer in the Class War ".... employers are largely the creaturers of circumstances" he declared in 1911
He believed strongly that centralised of power and finances was desirable in the interests of union efficiency and effectiveness
In 1904 union adopted resolutions adopting socialist ideas into rules by large majority "the socialisation of the means of production to be controlled by a democratic state in the interests of the entire community and the complete emancipation of labour from the domination of capitalism and landlordism, with the establishment of a social and economic equality between the sexes"
Thomas Frederick "Freddy" Richards
Was junior vice president of the Leicester no1 branch in 1892 vice president 1894 in 1894 also elected to the town council and union branch president 1897 by 1899 executive council
1903 an acquaintance referred to his "pale face and sharp almost ascetic cast of features by 1913 counted among the first dandies of the trade union movement bow tie and white spats were a keynote (together with was known in the Labour movement, with affectionate derision as an "anarchist hat" a few sneered at the "Beau Brummell" others satisfaction that he dressed more smartly than some employers other were merely suspicious
"full of activity and born fighter great organising ability
first dandies of the trade union movement
speak on a soap box white spats and white waistcoat and a straw hat
Thomas Frederick Richards born Wednesbury he moved to Leicester and became Leicester Branch of the Boot and Shoe Operatives From 1894–1903. He became a Leicester councillor was adopted in 1903 as Wolverhampton Trades Council Labour Representation Committee for West Wolverhampton and Richards won the seat in 1906. Later he contested East Northamptonshire
Street Union branch Secretary Fred Laver a street officer in local Street independent Labour Party (ILP) while the chair was William Page active Tory
By 1945 the general secretary Mr G. Chester could report that
"there are still difficulties in the odd factories, but in the main it is true to say that there is no boot factory, with one well known exception (BATA) which is not recognising and applying the terms of the national agreement" BATA did a year later
Shoe Makers Union strikes
Bata 1937
Bristol 1894
Chesham 1921
Freshwater 1894
Higham ferrers 1890
Leicester 1940
London 1891
Northampton 1887
Norwich 1897
Raunds 1905
Stoney Middleton 1918
Wellingborough 1932
1895 Lock out National
1891 London Lock out
1887 Lock Out Northampton (key in securing Northampton as a union town)
1875 Lock Out Stafford
Fred Gould of the elected MP for Frome Somerset in 1923
Walter Smith MP for Wellingborough and Norwich
Thomas "Freddy" Richards MP for Wolverhampton West
