The United Textile Factory Workers' Association (UTFWA) was a trade union federation in Great Britain. It was active from 1889 until 1975.
Objectives
The federation was founded in 1889, to represent the various textile workers' unions in political matters.D. A. Farnie, Region and Strategy in Britain and Japan, p.117 A successor to the Northern Counties Factory Acts Reform Association, it had a broader outlook, not just campaigning on the implementation and extension of the Factory Acts.Andrew Bullen, The Lancashire Weavers Union, p.22
The UTFWA initially represented around 125,000 workers,Teun Hoefnagel, Tussen traditie en emancipatie, p.328 three-quarters within twenty miles of Bolton in Lancashire.P. F. Clarke, Lancashire and the New Liberalism, p.84 By the early twentieth century, its members were organised in the Amalgamated Association of Card and Blowing Room Operatives, Amalgamated Association of Operative Cotton Spinners, Amalgamated Association of Beamers, Twisters and Drawers, Amalgamated Weavers' Association, General Union of Loom Overlookers and Operative Bleachers, Dyers and Finishers Association.P. F. Clarke, Lancashire and the New Liberalism, p.93 Later members included the Amalgamated Textile Warehousemen, the General Warp Dressers' Association of Lancashire and Yorkshire, and the Ball Warpers' Association.Labour Party, Report of the Forty-Fifth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, p.77
The new federation had a General Council with about two hundred members of local unions, and a Legislative Council of full-time leaders. However, its member unions did not always engage with its structures, and the General Council did not meet between 1896 and 1899.David Howell, British Workers and the Independent Labour Party, 1888-1906, pp.58-59
Early years
In its early years, the association attempted to introduce a bill reducing working hours, but dropped the proposal after it was only narrowly passed in a ballot of members. It also hoped to sponsor parliamentary candidates for both the Conservative Party and Liberal Party, but decided not to pursue this following a lack of interest from the Conservatives and opposition from James Mawdsley. However, it did achieve some success in campaigning against Indian tariffs on cotton imports, as the rates were reduced to below those on other materials.P. F. Clarke, Lancashire and the New Liberalism, pp.84-88
In 1902, breaking with its previous policy, the UTFWA supported David Shackleton's candidature for the Labour Representation Committee (LRC) in Clitheroe.P. F. Clarke, Lancashire and the New Liberalism, pp.91-92 He was elected and, the following year, the Association affiliated to the LRC. The Cardroom Workers quit the association a few years later after none of its members were adopted as parliamentary candidates, but rejoined in 1916.Joseph L. White, The Limits of Trade Union Militancy: The Lancashire Textile Workers, 1910-1914, pp.151-152
In 1920, some of its member unions moved for the association to extend its remit to industrial matters, but this was not adopted.H. A. Clegg et al, A History of British Trade Unions Since 1889: 1911-1933, p.305
Demise
The federation was dissolved on 1 December 1975,Report of Annual Trades Union Congress, vol.108, p.379 following the decline of the industry and the merger of its two largest affiliates into the Amalgamated Textile Workers' Union."Amalgamated Textile Workers' Union", Archives Hub
Election results The federation sponsored a large number of Labour Party candidates, many of whom won election.
Election Constituency Candidate Votes Percentage Position Union 1906 general election Bolton 10,416 37.1 2Joel Dayton Moore, The Taff Vale Decision in British Labor History, pp.115-116Frank Bealey and Henry Pelling, Labour and Politics, 1900-1906, pp.290-292 Spinners Clitheroe 12,035 75.9 1 Weavers 1910 Jan general election Bolton 11,864 30.5 2 Spinners Clitheroe 13,873 67.3 1 Weavers 1910 Dec general election Bolton 7,729 64.0 2 Spinners Clitheroe 12,107 67.7 1 Weavers Preston 7,853 23.0 4 Cardroom 1911 by-election Oldham 7,448 24.6 3 Beamers 1918 general election Clitheroe 9,578 44.7 1 Spinners Fylde 7,400 35.1 2 Weavers Nelson and Colne 14,075 62.0 1 Weavers Oldham 15,178 19.6 3 Beamers Ormskirk 6,545 37.2 1 Weavers Preston 19,213 25.8 1 Weavers Rossendale 7,984 35.1 2 Bleachers Sowerby 7,306 32.7 2 Weavers 1920 by-election Ashton-under-Lyne 8,127 39.6 2 Beamers 1922 general election Birmingham Duddeston 8,331 38.9 2Labour 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. Cardroom Clitheroe 12,911 45.3 2 Spinners Elland 10,590 36.8 1 Beamers Middleton and Prestwich 10,505 41.5 2 Cardroom Oldham 24,434 27.7 2 Weavers Ormskirk 8,374 41.3 2 Weavers Preston 26,259 27.9 1 Weavers Rossendale 11,029 36.5 2 Bleachers Royton 5,776 19.6 2 Spinners Sowerby 7,496 25.5 3 Weavers 1923 general election Bolton 25,133 18.6 1 Spinners Chorley 12,179 45.3 2 Weavers Clitheroe 11,469 37.9 2 Spinners Elland 12,031 49.1 2 Beamers Middleton and Prestwich 7,849 28.7 3 Cardroom Oldham 20,939 23.4 1 Weavers Preston 25,816 34.4 1 Weavers 1924 general election Bolton 30,632 20.9 3 Spinners Chorley 13,074 42.3 2 Weavers Elland 11,690 39.5 1 Beamers Middleton and Prestwich 8,442 27.0 2 Cardroom Oldham 23,623 19.7 3 Weavers Preston 27,009 26.3 1 Weavers Rossendale 9,951 32.4 2 Weavers 1925 by-election Oldham 21,702 45.2 2Labour Party, Report of the Annual Labour Party Conference (1925), pp.25–27 Weavers 1929 general election Bolton 43,520 24.0 1 Spinners Bolton 37,888 20.9 2 Cardroom Bury 13,175 37.4 2 Weavers Middleton and Prestwich 14,368 34.6 2 Cardroom Preston 37,705 29.5 1 Weavers Sowerby 14,223 37.2 1 Weavers 1931 general election Bolton 32,049 16.4 4 Cardroom Bolton 33,736 17.3 3 Spinners Bury 10,532 29.7 2 Weavers Heywood and Radcliffe 12,915 28.5 2 Beamers Middleton and Prestwich 10,796 25.4 2 Warehousemen Preston 25,710 18.0 3 Weavers Royton 5,913 14.4 3 Spinners Sowerby 11,857 31.7 2 Weavers 1935 general election Blackburn 34,571 23.9 3 Weavers Bolton 39,890 21.4 3 Spinners Bolton 39,871 21.4 4 Warehousemen Middleton and Prestwich 17,398 38.9 2 Weavers Oldham 29,647 4 Cardroom Sowerby 16,035 46.2 2 Weavers 1938 by-election Farnworth 24,298 59.1 1 Weavers 1945 general election Farnworth 28,462 66.1 1Labour Party, Report of the Forty-Fifth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp.232-248 Weavers Oldham 31,704 23.9 1 Overlookers Preston 32,889 24.1 2 Weavers 1950 general election Farnworth 25,375 56.6 1 Weavers Manchester Withington 14,206 32.6 2 Weavers Oldham East 21,510 45.0 1 Overlookers 1951 general election Bury and Radcliffe 28,058 48.4 2Labour Party, Report of the Fiftieth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp.184-203 Weavers Clitheroe 18,582 44.7 2 Weavers Farnworth 26,297 59.2 1 Weavers 1952 by-election Farnworth 21,834 59.9 1 Weavers 1955 general election Clitheroe 16,671 43.5 2Labour Party, Report of the Fifty-Fourth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp.255-275 Overlookers Farnworth 24,829 57.7 1 Weavers 1959 general election Clitheroe 16,103 41.9 2Labour Party, Report of the Fifty-Eighth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp.179-201 Overlookers Farnworth 27,393 58.6 1 Weavers 1964 general election Farnworth 28,492 62.1 1Labour Party, Report of the Sixty-Third Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp.158-180 Weavers 1966 general election Farnworth 30,015 66.2 1Labour Party, Report of the Sixty-Fifth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp.308-330 Weavers 1970 general election North Fylde 15,235 31.2 2Labour Party, Report of the Sixty-Ninth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp.289-312 Weavers
Leadership Secretaries 1889: Thomas Birtwistle c.1892: James Mawdsley 1902: Joseph Cross 1925: James Bell 1931: Cephas Speak 1943: Ernest Thornton 1953: Harold Bradley 1958: James Milhench 1968: Joseph Richardson
Presidents 1889: David Holmes 1890s: William Mullin 1913: William C. Robinson 1919: Walter Gee 1924: William Thomasson 1935: Archie Robertson 1953: William Roberts 1958: Harold Chorlton 1964: Jim Browning
See also History of trade unions in the United Kingdom
References
Further reading Griffiths, Trevor. The Lancashire Working Classes: C. 1880-1930 (Oxford University Press on Demand, 2001). Procter, Stephen, and J. S. Toms. "Industrial Relations and Technical Change: Profits, Wages and Costs in the Lancashire Cotton Industry, 1880-1914." Journal of Industrial History 3#1 (2000): 54-72. online Singleton, J. Lancashire on the scrapheap: The cotton industry, 1945–70 (Oxford UP, 1991). Tippett, L.H.C. A portrait of the Lancashire cotton industry (Oxford UP, 1969). White, Joseph L. "Lancashire Cotton Textiles," in Chris Wrigley, A History of British industrial relations, 1875-1914 (Univ of Massachusetts Press, 1982) pp 209–229.