The First Trades Union Congress, 1868

Abstract

The Congress organised by The Manchester and Salford Trades Council at the Mechanics Institute, Manchester, on 2 June 1868, to discuss ‘the present aspect of trade unions’ has been followed in almost unbroken annual succession over the last hundred years. Today the T.U.C. is recognised on all sides as a body that represents the collective opinions of the great bulk of employees. Its status is such that it is consulted by all governments on every issue that is of public concern to workpeople; its representatives sit on a great variety of public committees and councils; it speaks on behalf of British trade unions in the international labour field. The views of the trade unions that are gathered and formulated at the annual congress are now given practical expression through a General Council that meets monthly, and the General Secretary, assisted by a permanent staff of national officers who carry out their duties from Congress House, one of the most modern and impressive buildings in the centre of London.