The National Amalgamated Furnishing Trades Association (NAFTA) was a trade union representing workers involved in making furniture in the United Kingdom.
History The union was founded in 1902 from the merger of the Alliance Cabinet Makers' Association and the United Operative Cabinet and Chairmakers' Society of Scotland. In 1911, the Amalgamated Society of Gilders and Amalgamated Society of French Polishers both merged into the new organisation."Furniture, Timber and Allied Trades Union", Working Class Movement Library In 1907, the union had 7,007 members.
In 1946, the union merged with the Amalgamated Union of Upholsterers to form the National Union of Furniture Trade Operatives.
Election results In its early years, the union sponsored several Labour Party candidates, some of whom won election.
Election Constituency Candidate Votes Percentage Position 1906 general election Leeds East 4,299 66.1 1Frank Bealey and Henry Pelling, Labour and Politics, 1900-1906, pp.290-292 1910 Jan general election Leeds East 5,873 71.8 1 1910 Dec general election Leeds East 4,028 68.0 1 1918 general election Leeds South East unopposed N/A 1Labour Year Book (1919), pp.12-14 1918 general election Plymouth Devonport 4,115 19.3 2 1923 general election Coventry 16,346 34.2 1 1924 general election Coventry 17,888 33.4 2 1925 by-election Forest of Dean 11,629 48.5 1 1929 general election Hammersmith North 17,601 56.2 1
Leadership General Secretaries 1902: Harry Ham 1905: Alex GossipVictor Leonard Allen, Power in Trade Unions: A Study of Their Organization in Great Britain, p.284 1941: Alf Tomkins
Parliamentary Secretaries 1906: James O'Grady 1919: James Patrick Gardner 1937: F. E. Sweetman
Assistant General Secretaries 1907: H. A. Urie 1937: Alf Tomkins 1946: Alf Bickness
References