Records of the National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers (Aberdeen Branch)

This collection contains records of the Aberdeen branch of the National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers, and its predecessors. The chronology and relationships of the predecessor organisations have not been firmly established, and the provenance of some records is uncertain. For the purpose of this collection level description, all of these records are described as a single group. The contents include:

Contribution books, 1898 - 1946; contribution cards, 1912 - 1951; unemployment books, 1921 - 1936; misc. correspondence, 1929 - 1950; printed rules and regulations, 1884 - c. 1929; printed annual reports and balance sheets, 1941 - 1950; The Garment Worker: the official organ of the National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers , 1944 - 1952 (incomplete); Labour: the official organ of the T.U.C. , 1941 - 1952 (incomplete); misc. printed papers, 1940 - 1951 (including publicity and posters re. union membership, 1945 - 1951, and Trade Union and Labour Party literature, 1940 - 1951)

The National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers was formed in 1932, through the amalgamation of several independent clothing trade unions about this time. The history and chronology of the older associations represented in this collection have not been established. It seems likely that the Amalgamated Society of Tailors, and the Amalgamated Union of Clothiers Operatives were separate organisations, formed in the late nineteenth or early twentieth centuries, and that both were involved in the industry's union merger of 1932. The Scottish National Association Operative Tailors was in existence between 1867 and 1884, and is understood to be the predecessor of the Amalgamated Society of Tailors.

An Aberdeen branch of the Scottish National Association Operative Tailors had been formed by 1867, thought its date of establishment is not known. 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 1967

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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