Amalagamated Association of Tramway and Vehicle Workers
This is the story of the Amalagamated Association of Tramway and Vehicle Workers, including the United Vehicle Workers.
Founded in Manchester in 1889, the union laboured in its early years under the rather long-winded title of the Northern Counties Amalgamated Association of Tramway and Hackney Carriage Employees and Horsemen in General.
The union was formed in response to a move by Manchester and Salford Tramway Company to reward members of the public who informed on tramway workers who were allegedly guilty of defrauding their employer, and soon had 400 members.
By 1892, with a full-time general secretary, George Jackson, on the far from generous salary of £1 4 shillings a week, the union had extended its reach as far as Nottingham, Sheffield and Burnley, and had a new name: the Tramway, Hackney Carriage Employees and Horsemen’s Association.
During the 1890s, the growing union absorbed Bolton Tramway Union, Manchester , Salford and District Lurrymen and Carters Union, Edinburgh and District Tramway and Carmen’s Union , Belfast Carters Union and Huddersfield Carters Union.
By the time it changed its name once again to become the Amalgamated Association of Tramway and Vehicle Workers, the union could claim 10,000 members. Impressive though this sounds, however, the industry itself had grown far faster, and the AATVW still represented only a small proportion of people employed in it. A final boost came in 1910, however, when the London Tramway Employees Association transferred its engagements to the union, taking membership to 17,076 and giving it national reach.
In 1919, the AATVW joined forces with the London and Provincial Union of Licensed Vehicle Workers in a new United Vehicle Workers, whose membership now included electric, cable, steam, horse, tram, cab and omnibus drivers as well as conductors, chauffeurs, horsekeepers, cabmen, carters, lurrymen, farriers, washers and cleaners.
The merger proved exceptionally difficult, and within a year, the new union’s total membership had fallen from 115,897 to 89,962, in part because of rivalries between bus and tram workers, leading at one point to a short-lived breakaway Trams, Omnibus and Tube Workers union.
On 1 January 1922, the United Vehicle Workers became one of the founding organisations of today’s Transport and General Workers Union.
List of officers , December 1905
Office | Name | Address |
---|---|---|
President | Henry Archer | 46 Bailey Street, Old Basford, Nottingham |
General Secretary | Councillor George Jackson JP | 5 Leaf Square Pendleton |
Trustee | Councillor R Tootill JP | Westward House, Tonge Road, Bolton |
Trustee | Edwin Plinston | 194 Wilderspool Causeway, Warrington |
Trustee | James S Kirkbride | 9 Bold Street, Chorlton Road, Manchester |
Auditor | Henry Murray | 87 Fentonville Street, Sheffield |
Auditor | James Hacking J B Bovill | 49 Thomas Street, Cheetham Hill, Manchester |
Directory of branch secretaries, 1905
Branch | Name | Address |
---|---|---|
Accrington | Samuel Pilkington | 184, Stanley Street |
Ashton | J H Kaye | 48 Queen Street, Hurst |
Barnsley | Newby Thornley | 61 Farrar Street |
Belfast | R J Moore | 14 Walbeck Street |
Birmingham | A G Jones | 9 Upper Dean Street |
Blackburn No 1 | James Hacking | 35a Northgate |
Blackburn No 2 | James Hacking | 35a Northgate |
Bolton | Geo Hollis | 616 Chorley Old Road, Halliwell |
Bradford | J H Palin | 51 Lower Rushton Road, Thornbury |
Burnley No 1 | John Hartley | 25 Parker Lane |
Burnley No 2 | James Ashton | 9 Haydock Street |
Blackley | T Hopkinson | 18 Silver Street |
Burton-on-Trent | J J Clark | 88 Ash Street |
Bournemouth | H Allen | 83 Victoria Road East |
Brighton | E Knight | 35 Gloucester Street |
Cardiff | R J Palser | Tavistock Hotel, Bedford Street |
Colne | B Tatam | 12 Spring Yard |
Darlington | C Bainbridge | 54 Greenbank Road North |
Dundee | A M Strachan | 11 Robertson Street |
Edinburgh | R Johnson | 142 High Street |
Edmonton | C Watson | Tramway Workers Rest, Edmonton, London |
Glossop | H Winterbottom | 3 Charles Street |
Halifax No 1 | W Graham | 1 Dowker Street, Fenton Road |
Halifax No 2 | J H Palin | 51 Lower Rushton Road, Thornbury, Bradford |
Huddersfield No 1 | O Stancliffe | 2 Rook Street |
Huddersfield No 2 | J Ainley | 2 Logwood Street, Lockwood |
Huddersfield No 3 | S Hirst | 122 Springdale Street, Longroyd Bridge |
Hull Farriers | George Purdon | 8 Wilberforce Terrace, Argyle Street |
Ilkeston | G M Tyler | Springfield Gardens, Awsworth Road |
Keighley | A Briggs | 10 Victoria Road |
Leeds | J Kelly | 48 Cavendish Street |
Lees | Wm Green | 56 Hartshead Street |
Leicester | Geo Sawbridge | 57 Berners Street |
London No 1 | G F Reader | 6 Harcourt Road, West Ham |
London No 2 | H J Greenhill | 18 Claude Road, Heaton Road, Peckham |
London No 3 | G Pearson | 41 Joubert Street, Battersea |
London No 4 | J E Matthews | 11 Tandridge Place, Landor Road, Clapham |
London No 5 | B Owen | 74 Clifton Crescent, Asylum Road, Peckham |
London No 6 | G Pearce | 154 Trundley's Road, Deptford |
London No 7 | A G Hooker | 80 Tyer Street, Vauxhall S.E. |
London No 8 | G R Wilber | 102 Balvernie Grove, Southfields, Wandsworth |
Manchester No 1 | W Hodgkinson | 11 Marshall Place, Waterloo Road, Hightown |
Manchester No 2 | J H Shaw | 12 Norseman Street, Rose Grove, Stockport Road |
Manchester No 3 | Thos Brewer | 24 Apsley Grove, Ardwick |
Manchester No 4 | H Day | 31 Greenfield Terrace, Flixton |
Manchester No 5 | W Jarman | 80 Butler Street, Greenheys |
Manchester No 6 | C H Davies | 12 Aked Street, Stockport Road |
Milnsbridge | John Chas Brook | Cassons Buildings |
Mossley | G W Bolton | 127 Stockport Road |
Newcastle-on-Tyne No 1 | J W Bradley | 52 Helmsley Road, Jesmond |
Newcastle-on-Tyne No 2 | H Goodhead | 31 Bulmer Street |
Northampton | A Gamble | 1 Marlborough Road |
Nottingham | J E Pendleton | 25 Highbury Avenue, Bulwell |
Nelson | D Moulds | 86 Bradshaw Street |
Oldham No 1 | A E Turner | 56 Regent Street, Rochdale |
Oldham No 2 | A E Turner | 56 Regent Street, Rochdale |
Portsmouth | H Barker | 6 Nelson Square, Landport |
Parkstone | W Reid | 3 Portland Terrace, Weymouth Road |
Preston | J H Alstead | 60 Lauderdale Street, Fishergate Hill |
Pontypridd | A H Maye | 56a Queen Street, Treforest |
Rawtenstall | J McElwee | 2 Lord Street |
Rochdale | A E Turner | 58 Regent Street |
Rotherham | W Millner | 80 Rawmarsh Road |
Salford No 1 | J Griffin | 27 Bolton Road, Pendleton |
Salford No 2 | W White | 149 Church Street, Pendleton |
Sheffield No 1 | John Temperton | 5 Woodhead Road |
Sheffield No 2 | John Temperton | 5 Woodhead Road |
Southport | J Christopher | 200 Sussex Road |
South Shields | M Robinson | 69 Eldor Street |
Stalybridge | Jas W Kaye | 48 Queen Street, Hurst |
Stockport | A Lloyd | 20 Thomson Street |
Stone-on-Trent | J Heath | 5 Adams Street, May Bank |
Todmorden | John Morris | 14 Butterworth Street |
Warrington | Edward Plinston | 194 Wilderspool Causeway |
Wigan | T Cobbe | 15 Duke Street |
Walthamstow | J Perkins | 101 Diana Road, Forest Road |
Wolverhampton | Chas Everett | 15 St Mark Street |