Trades Union Congress badges

Established in 1868, the Trades Union Congress (or TUC) has been the principal umbrella organisation for Britain’s trade unions for more than 150 years. Much of the union’s day-to-day work is conducted by officials and policy experts, and in committees and sub-committees on which representatives of its member organisations deal with organisational and policy issues that feed into campaigning and lobbying activities. But the TUC’s annual Congress, bringing together delegates from its affiliated unions in what has been called the trade union movement’s parliament, is its ultimate decision-making forum.

Trades councils have long offered local forums for trade union

Since the turn of the twentieth century, delegates to the TUC Congress have been issued with a commemorative badge which almost always includes details of the host town or city and the year in which the event was held. In the mid twentieth century the annual TUC Congress meeting was a huge and well-attended event, typically held in a seaside town with suitable conference venues and a plentiful choice of fairly cheap hotel or guesthouse accommodation for the thousands of delegates, union officials, visitors and journalists. Their debates and decisions were reported at length in the daily newspapers, and could have significant implications for governments and employers.

Over the decades, the design of the TUC delegates’ badges (now more properly the TUC President’s badge) has changed markedly. For many years, the design of these badges was staid and unexciting, built around the coat of arms of the town in which that year’s event was held. But there were changes, and often after a new design was implemented, the core version of the badge remained largely unchanged while details evolved subtly from year to year. And from the 1980s onwards, the TUC President had a significant influence over the choice of imagery and slogan used for the year in which they held office. The selection of badges below shows how the badges have changed over time.

The evolution of the TUC badge is discussed on the Society for the Study of Labour History website: see Slogans and souvenirs: TUC delegate badges from 1899 to the present day.

Trades council badges

Trades councils provide a local forum, bringing together branches of trade unions at the level of a town, city or county, and have a history which in some cases pre-dates that of the TUC itself. It was largely through the efforts of the London Trades Council (established 1860) and Manchester and Salford Trades Council (1866) that the first meeting of the Trades Union Congress was held at the Mechanics Institute in Manchester in June 1868. Other early trades councils include those at Birmingham (1866), Bolton (1866), Bradford (1872) and Newcastle (1873). A small number of trades council badges can be seen below.