The Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (ASRS) was a trade union of railway workers in the United Kingdom from 1871 until 1913.
History The ASRS was an industrial union founded in 1871 with the support of the Liberal MP Michael Thomas Bass.Raynes, 1921, pages 23–24 Its early years were difficult. In 1872 the ASRS reported having 17,247 members but by 1882 this had declined to only 6,321.Raynes, 1921, page 24
In 1880 the ASRS's growth was challenged by the foundation of two railway craft unions: the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen and the United Pointsmen and Signalmen's Society. A fourth union, the General Railway Workers' Union, was founded in 1889.
In 1899, the ASRS introduced a resolution at the Trades Union Congress to form a joint Labour Representation Committee with other trade unionist, socialist, and co-operative groups. This led to the formation of the Labour Party to contest parliamentary elections under the chairmanship of Ramsay MacDonald.
In 1900 the ASRS proposed amalgamation with ASLEFRaynes, 1921, page 124 but ASLEF proposed federation with the drivers and firemen of the ASRS.Raynes, 1921, page 110 A Scheme of Federation was drafted and ASLEF's triennial conference adopted it in 1903. There were joint meetings of the Executive Committees of the two unions until 1906 when relations broke down.Raynes, 1921, page 125
In 1907 the Board of Trade set up a Conciliation Board between railway employees and their employers, but its operation dissatisfied many workers and ASLEF's General Secretary nicknamed it the "Confiscation" Board.Raynes, 1921, pages 147–148 By this point, the ASRS had grown significantly, with 97,561 members in 1907, making it one of the country's largest trade unions.
In August 1911 the ASRS, ASLEF, GRWU and UPSS jointly called the United Kingdom's first national rail strike.Raynes, 1921, page 148 In only two days the joint action succeeded in forcing the Liberal Government to set up a Royal Commission to examine the workings of the Conciliation Board.Raynes, 1921, page 151
In 1913 the ASRS, GRWU and UPSS merged, forming the National Union of Railwaymen.Raynes, 1921, page 165
Election results The ASRS affiliated to the Labour Representation Committee when it was founded, in 1900, and sponsored candidates for the party and its successor, the Labour Party at each subsequent election. Several candidates were elected, including many in Derby, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Stockport, who won one of the two seats available in each of those constituencies.
Election Constituency Candidate Votes % share Position 1900 general election Derby 7,640 25.7 2Frank Bealey and Henry Pelling, Labour and Politics, 1900-1906, p.289–292 1906 general election Birmingham East 5,343 47.4 2 Newcastle-upon-Tyne 18,869 31.1 1 Stockport 7,299 32.4 1 1907 by-election Kingston upon Hull West 4,512 29.1 3 1910 Jan general election Derby 10,189 27.9 2David Howell, Respectable Radicals: Studies in the Politics of Railway Trade Unionism, p.195 Newcastle-upon-Tyne 18,241 28.1 2 Stockport 6,682 28.0 1 1910 Dec general election Derby 9,144 34.1 2 Newcastle-upon-Tyne 16,447 28.0 2 Stockport 6,094 26.9 2 1912 by-election Crewe 2,485 17.7 3
Leadership General Secretaries 1871: George Chapman 1874: Fred W. Evans 1883: Edward Harford 1897: Richard Bell 1909: J. E. Williams
Assistant Secretaries 1883: Thomas Watson 1889: Edward Garrity 1902: J. E. Williams 1910: J. H. Thomas
Presidents 1872: J. Baxter Langley 1874: John David Jenkins 1877: Peter Stewart Macliver 1892: Walter Hudson 1899: George Thaxton 1902: W. G. Loraine 1905: James Henry Thomas 1907: James Reed Bell 1910: Edward Charles 1911: Albert Bellamy
References
Sources and further reading
Gold, Michael. "History through Literary Imagination: Portrayals of Worker Representation and Collective Action in Condition-of-England Novels, c.1830–1855" Historical Studies in Industrial Relations, Vol. 46: 1-51. online
External links Catalogue of the ASRS archives, held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
See also Help (dog)