TUC welcomes new prime minister’s trade union legislation

Delegates to the Trades Union Congress were in bullish mood on the first day of their annual conference.

In the 12 months since they last met, trade union membership had continued to grow, new trade union legislation passed by a sympathetic government had removed some of the legal risks they faced when taking industrial action, and a boom in trade had brought rising levels of employment and improvements in wages.

Yes, 1907 was, on the whole, not a bad year for trade unions. When the first TUC conference had taken place in Manchester in 1868, there were 34 delegates representing some 118,367 members. Forty years on, TUC affiliated unions represented 1.7 million people and sent a total of 521 delegates to Congress – among them no fewer than 34 Members of Parliament.

For the unions themselves, the most significant development of the previous year had been the passage of the Trades Disputes Act 1906. This piece of legislation, promoted by the Liberal Government elected that year under Henry Campbell-Bannerman, gave trade unions some degree of legal immunity during strike action – and in effect overturned the Taff Vale ruling of 1901 that held the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants liable for losses suffered during a strike against the Taff Vale Railway Company.

Other causes to celebrate included the passage of a Workmen's Compensation Act which extended protection against industrial accidents and industrial diseases to a further six million workers in the building trades, shop assistants, clerks, domestic servants and seamen.

In addition, the Home Secretary had introduced legislation for an eight hour day for coal miners. And there were to be new provisions to introduce state-funded old age pensions – although the TUC general council was not entirely happy that the pension proposals were generous enough.

Finally, the conference heard reports on the new parliamentary working arrangements agreed between Labour MPs and the trade union group of MPs over the previous year – which would over time evolve into the Labour Party we know today.

Back in 1907, the TUC was also extending its geographical scope. It was meeting for the first time in the Assembly Rooms at Bath – hardly a renowned trade union stronghold, but one which gave them a cordial welcome all the same.

Perhaps surprisingly, the largest union in the district was the Somersetshire Miners Association, with nearly 4,000 members which took a prominent part in organising that year’s conference alongside Bath Trades Council.

In the year that followed the Bath conference, the trade union movement found itself facing more difficult times. The Amalgamated Society of Engineers, one of the biggest and most important unions, disaffiliated from the TUC. Unemployment began to rise again. And scares over a possible war with Germany had begun to alter the political climate.

While the TUC continued to grow and expand its role for many years to come, the Bath conference of 1907 represented something of high point for organised labour in an Edwardian summer that would end in war, mass unemployment and the economic disasters of the 1920s.

Pictured: Cllr A W Thomas JP, President of Bath Trades Council, 1907 (Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants)

Further reading
Report of proceedings of the 40th Trades Union Conference held in the Assembly Rooms, Bath, on September 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th, 1907 on the Union Makes Us Strong website.

A short history of the Somersetshire Miners Association on the Trade Union Ancestors website.