The National Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives (NUBSO) was a trade union in the United Kingdom which existed between 1873 and 1971. It represented workers in the footwear industry.
History The union was founded in 1873, when many riveters and finishers left the Amalgamated Society of Boot and Shoe Makers. They were dissatisfied by their low status within the old union, and instead formed the National Union of Boot and Shoe Rivetters and Finishers (NUBSRF)."National Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives", Trade Union Ancestors Membership in Leicester grew rapidly, with the next largest branches being Glasgow, London and Stafford. In total, by 1877, the union had about 4,000 members.
A few women joined the union in the late 1880s, making it the first union outside the textile trades to admit both men and women. At this point, membership in the important shoe making centre of Northampton was low, with only about 600 of 15,000 shoe workers in the town holding union membership. That year, a five-week lock-out of members resulted in a settlement favourable to the union. This brought in hundreds of new members, and by the end of the year, its national membership reached 10,000. The General Union of Clickers and Rough-stuff Cutters merged into the NUBSRF in 1892, but most of its members left again in 1895.
During the late 1880s and early 1890s, socialists came to prominence in the union. They led campaigns against sweatshop working and outworking, where people worked from their own homes and were paid by item completed. Under their influence, the union organised a 34-week strike in 1897, in support of a minimum wage and a 54-hour week, but this was unsuccessful.
In 1897, the union renamed itself as the "National Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives" and joined the General Federation of Trade Unions the following year. Membership rose over 100,000 by 1920, although it soon fell to around 80,000. Members in the Republic of Ireland left in 1953, to form the Irish Shoe and Leather Workers' Union.John B. Smethurst and Peter Carter, Historical directory of trade unions, vol.6, p.101
A major decline in the British shoe-making industry led the union to merge with the Amalgamated Society of Leather Workers, the National Union of Glovers and Leather Workers and the National Union of Leather Workers and Allied Trades in 1971, forming National Union of Footwear, Leather and Allied Trades.
Election results The union was affiliated to the Labour Party, and sponsored numerous Parliamentary candidates, many of whom won election.
Election Constituency Candidate Votes % share Position 1906 general election Wolverhampton West 6,767 50.9 1Frank Bealey and Henry Pelling, Labour and Politics, 1900-1906, pp.290-292 1910 Jan general election Bristol East 1,874 31.2 2 Wolverhampton West 5,790 47.6 2 1918 general election Wellingborough 10,290 52.5 1 1922 general election Eccles 14,354 51.4 1Labour Party, Report of the Twenty-second Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp.255-272. Note that this list is of the sanctioned candidates as of June 1922, and there were some changes between this date and the general election. Leicester West 12,929 45.0 1 Wellingborough 11,057 42.4 2 Wells 4,048 18.9 3 1923 general election Daventry 4,127 17.5 3 Eccles 12,267 42.7 1 Norwich 20,077 20.9 1 1924 general election Eccles 14,354 51.4 1 Norwich 23,808 22.9 3 1929 general election Altrincham 9,242 16.4 3 Frome 18,524 45.5 1 Norwich 33,690 26.0 2 Nottingham East 9,787 28.0 3 Stafford 10,011 36.6 2 1931 general election Frome 17,748 41.7 2 Kingston upon Hull North West 9,946 27.3 2 Leeds North East 10,294 24.5 2 Norwich 28,295 21.0 3 Stafford 8,640 31.9 2 1935 general election Kilmarnock 12,558 33.4 2 Leeds North East 14,080 35.2 2 Leicester East 17,532 42.6 2 1945 general election Bosworth 26,151 55.6 1Labour Party, Report of the Forty-Fifth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp.232-248 Burton 18,288 51.1 1 Harborough 23,353 42.5 1 Smethwick 20,522 65.9 1 1950 general election Bosworth 29,282 53.6 1 Harborough 21,381 38.2 2 1951 general election Bosworth 30,767 57.1 1 1966 general election Bridgwater 17,864 38.1 2Labour Party, Report of the Sixty-Fifth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp.308-330
Leadership General Secretaries 1874: Thomas Smith 1878: George Sedgwick 1886: William Inskip 1899: W. Boyd Hornidge 1908: Edward L. Poulton 1930: George Chester 1949: Lionel Poole 1960: Richard Gregson 1968: T. A. Moore
General Presidents 1878: Edward Kell 1890: T. Horrabin 1892: Jabez Leedham 1892: John Judge 1893: W. Boyd Hornidge 1899: Charles Freak 1910: Thomas Frederick Richards 1930: W. R. Townley 1938: Len Smith 1944: James Crawford 1957: Sydney Robinson
References
External links Catalogue of the NUBSO archives, held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick