Records of Scottish Commercial Motormen's Union (Aberdeen Branch)

This collection comprises printed records of the Scottish Horse and Motormen's Association and its successor, the Scottish Commercial Motormen's Union. There are no local branch records, although details about the activities of the Aberdeen Branch can be found in The Highway and the Conference Reports.

Contents of the Collection are as follows: rule books, 1928 - 1964; financial reports, 1929 - 1938 (incomplete); Conference reports and agenda, 1948 - 1964; The Highway: the official organ of the Scottish Horse and Motormen's Association (from Oct. 1964, ... of the Scottish Commercial Motormen's Union ), 1939 - 1968.

The Scottish Horse and Motormen's Association was established in 1898. In 1964, its name was changed to the Scottish Commercial Motormen's Union.

An Aberdeen branch of the union was established in 1911, and by 1912 had successfully negotiated a small increase in carters' wages, which had been described by Aberdeen Trades Council at that time as "deplorable" (William Diack, Trade Unionism in Aberdeen, (Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1939), p. 214). The union produced similar wage agreements for motormen, and by the early twentieth century had reduced its members' weekly working hours to 48, and negotiated one week's paid annual leave. By 1939 branch membership stood at over 1000.

Further information about the development of the trade union movement and the history of individual trade unions in Aberdeen can be found in William Diack, History of the Trades Council and the Trade Union Movement in Aberdeen (Aberdeen: Aberdeen Trades Council, 1939), and in Kenneth D. Buckley, Trade Unionism in Aberdeen 1870 - 1900 (Edinburgh and London: Oliver and Boyd, 1955). Arthur Marsh and Victoria Ryan, Historical Directory of Trade Unions, 4 vols (Aldershot: Gower, 1980 - 1984) also contains useful information about the development of individual unions, at both the national and local level. Summarised details from each of these sources has been used in compiling this collection level description.

Arranged by record type, and chronologically therein

Open, subject to signature accepting conditions of use at reader registration sheet

Deposited in the University in Feb 1968

Descriptive list available in the Reading Room, Special Libraries and Archives, University of Aberdeen. Contents of this list are searchable on-line at http://www.abdn.ac.uk/diss/historic/collects/stiqcgi/prelim01.html , via the Historic Collections database.

Very brief collection level description available on Aberdeen University Library Catalogue, accessible online http://www.abdn.ac.uk/diss/library/

No copies known

Subject to the condition of the original, copies may be supplied for private research use only on receipt of a signed undertaking to comply with current copyright legislation.

Permission to make any published use of material from the collection must be sought in advance from the Head of Special Libraries and Archives (e-mail: speclib@abdn.ac.uk ) and, where appropriate, from the copyright owner. Where possible, assistance will be given in identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.

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