The Leicester and District Trades Union Council brings together trade unionists in and around Leicester, in England.
History In the 1860s, the Leicester unions of Labourers, Trimmers, Hose Shirt and Drawers, and Sock and Top Union, formed a loose association to discuss matters of common interest, under the leadership of Isaac Abbott. In 1872, on the initiative of Daniel Merrick, it was replaced by a broader organisation, the Leicester Trades Council. The formation was inspired by concern over the Criminal Law Amendment Act, and perhaps also by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) being held in Nottingham in 1871.
In 1875, Phoebe Mason of the Seamers' and Stitchers' Society was elected to the council, the first woman known to have served on any trade council in the UK. That year, Leicester hosted the TUC, and Merrick, representing the trades council, was elected as President of the TUC. By 1891, the council had 17,000 affiliated members, of whom, 13,500 were members of the Leicester and Leicestershire Amalgamated Hosiery Union, or the National Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives.
The council endorsed several candidates for the Leicester Town Council and School Board, including Merrick, Thomas Smith and George Sedgwick. In 1890, the council backed several Labour Association candidates, who were elected to Leicester Town Council as Liberal-Labour members, but thereafter, the growing influence of socialists on the council led it to distance itself from Liberal candidates. In 1893, this led it to support a May Day demonstration, in support of the movement for an eight-hour day, while at the 1894 Leicester by-election, it backed Joseph Burgess, the Independent Labour Party candidate. It became a founding affiliate of the Labour Representation Committee in 1900.
In 1962, the trades council sponsored a major arts festival in the city. From the late 1960s, the trades council became strongly involved in anti-racist activity in the city. In 1977, after the Conservative Party-controlled council gave the National Front permission to sell their paper outside Leicester Town Hall, the council's anti-racist committee organised a successful picket of it.
Leadership Presidents 1872: Daniel Merrick 1884: Joseph H. Woolley 1885: 1890: Joseph Potter 1891: 1892: Charles Harris 1893: George Banton 1895: 1896: Harry Hardwick Woolley 1897: 1899: Tom Carter 1900: Job Cobley 1901: Alfred Hill 1902: Frederick Wheeler 1903: Martin Curley 1904: 1905: George Albert Kenney 1906: 1907: George Hubbard 1909: 1914: T. Rowland Hill 1915: E. Burns 1916: Alfred Hill 1917: 1918: John Riley 1919: Thomas Adnitt 1920: Frank Acton 1921: Edwin Baum
1923: Albert Edward Monk 1923: George Bell 1924: George Albert Kenney 1925: Ernest Grimsley 1926: William Henry Smith 1927: Fred West 1928: Thomas Frederick Richards 1929: Abraham Odell 1930: Will Maw 1931: Fred Jackson
1934: Teddy Peacock 1935: Edith Alice Scott 1936: Alfred H. Hawkins
1938: James W. Green
1944: Bertram Powell
1946: Teddy Peacock 1946: Sidney Bridges
1952: Arthur Marriott
1954: Albert Hall 1955: William Whitlock 1956: Percy Watts
1958: Teddy Peacock 1958: Tamil Mukherjee
1967: Ken Hazeldeane
1969: Bill Hynes 1970: Albert Hall 1972:
Secretaries 1872: Joseph Sharp 1885: George Green 1903: Tom Carter 1910: Martin Curley 1910: Fredrick Sutton 1912: James Baum 1916: Albert Edward Monk 1918: James Baum 1923: 1926: T. Rowland Hill 1932: Will Maw 1945:
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