‘What About That Lass of Yours Being in the Union?’: Textile Workers and Their Union in Yorkshire, 1888–1922

Abstract

In attempting to describe and explain the development of a particular trade union — the General Union of Textile Workers — during the first twenty years of this century, the deficiencies of the conventional approach to trade union history became obvious. A union which has no past glories, no militant tradition, no craft splendours to portray, will perhaps feel less conscious of its own history, for whatever reason. Few minute books, the life blood of the trade union historian, survived for this union. One reason for this historical neglect may be the high proportion of women in the woollen and worsted industry within which the General Union grew. The production of woollen and worsted textiles has always involved women’s labour at varying stages in different historical periods. Clapham, writing in 1907, estimated that in the West Riding of Yorkshire as a whole one in twelve men and boys and one in four women and girls were entering the industry.¹ Women, mainly in the 13–29 age group, were predominant in the manufacturing side of the industry. This means that any account which talks simply of ‘the members’, ‘labour’ or even of ‘the weavers’, would be guilty of inaccuracies in key areas unless the meaning of work and labour for men and women workers within a particular socioeconomic context were also included.