The Manchester Trades Union Council brings together trade union branches in Manchester in England.

History Efforts to bring trade unionists together across Manchester go back to the eighteenth century. In 1818 the cotton spinners persuaded other trades to join them in a successful but short lived Philanthropic Society. The first use of the name Trades Council was a meeting in 1837 of the United Trades Council of Manchester and Salford organising support for the Glasgow Cotton Spinners. A thousand people in the Corn Exchange listened to speakers including J.R. Richardson, author of ‘The Rights of Women’ and Joseph Rayner Stephens, both of whom went on to be active Chartists.

Following a trade union conference in Sheffield in July 1866 called to discuss the use of the lockout weapon by employers, two delegates from the Manchester Typographical Association, William Henry Wood and Samuel Caldwell Nicholson, convened the inaugural meeting of the Manchester and Salford Trades Union Council in October 1866. A month later Wood was elected secretary and Nicholson president. Wood and Nicholson were Conservative working men. Other members of the council included the radicals Peter Shorrocks of the Tailors, William MacDonald of the Operative Housepainters and Malcolm MacLeod, an engineer. When the Council decided to avoid identifying with any political movement, the radicals set up the Trade Unionists Political Association with MacDonald as president and MacLeod as secretary. One of the Trades Council's first decisions was the proposal to form a court of arbitration. Set up jointly with the Manchester Chamber of Commerce in 1868, it was short-lived, failing to arbitrate a single case. More significantly in February that year, the council called a national conference of trade unionists which met in June and agreed to form what became the Trades Union Congress. Woods was elected president and Shorrocks secretary. This soon became the leading national association of trade unions.

Peter Shorrocks played a leading role in establishing the Amalgamated Society of Tailors and was an active supporter of the International Workingmen's Association, the First International. He succeeded Wood to be secretary from 1877 to 1883. He was followed as secretary by George Davy Kelley, full-time secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Lithographic Printers and a member of the General Council of the Manchester Liberal Association. Kelley helped to greatly increase affiliations to the council. Many of the new affiliations were general unions of unskilled workers, a development which Kelley opposed as he felt the organisations would not endure, but they soon came to dominate the council. Despite this, Kelley remained the council's most prominent figure, being elected to Manchester City Council in 1891 as a Liberal-Labour representative.Alan Haworth and Dianne Hayter, Men who made Labour, pp.122-123

In 1902, the council convened a meeting of local trade unionists and members of the Independent Labour Party and Social Democratic Federation, which renamed the council as the Manchester Trades and Labour Council, becoming the local affiliate of the Labour Representation Committee.Declan McHugh, Labour in the City, p.53 Two years later, Kelley broke his links with the Liberals, and in 1906 he was elected as a Labour Member of Parliament, standing down from his trades council posts.

In the 1920s, the council affiliated to the Communist Party of Great Britain-led National Minority Movement.Alan Clinton, The Trade Union Rank and File: Trades Councils in Britain, 1900-40, p.148 Although the Labour Party set up its own Manchester Borough organisation, the council continued to campaign on a wide range of labour issues, remaining the leading labour movement organisation in the city into the 1930s, and attracted the support of John Maynard Keynes for its proposals on local industrial policy.Alan Clinton, The Trade Union Rank and File: Trades Councils in Britain, 1900-40, pp.179-180

In 1974, Salford District Trades Council was created, and the Manchester Trades Union Council adopted its present name.Salford Trades Union Council, "Officers"

Secretaries 1866: William Henry Wood 1877: Peter Shorrocks

1883: George Davy Kelley 1906: Tom Fox 1909: William R. Mellor 1929: A. A. Purcell 1935: Jack Munro 1944: Horace Newbold 1969: Colin Davis 1974: Frances Dean 1982: Dave Hawkins - UHDE 1990: Arthur Berry - NGA 1999 Jeno Menezes 2004 Geoff Brown - UCU 2012 Frank Ellis - TSSA 2013 Richard Lighten - UNISON 2014 Alexander Davidson - PCS 2016: Chris Marks - PCS 2018: Alexander Davidson - GMB 2019: John Pye - UNISON 2020: John Pye - UNISON 2025: John Pye - UNISON 2026: John Pye - UNISON

Presidents 1866: Samuel Caldwell Nicholson 1882: Robert Austin 1886: Matthew Arrandale - UMW 1895: F. Entwistle - ASE 1899: George Tabbron - Manchester Brassfounders 1901: Matthew Arrandale - UMW 1905: A. A. Purcell - NAFTA 1906: Tom Fox 1914: A. A. Purcell - NAFTA 1920: Rhys Davies - SAU 1921: Ernest Hookway 1924: Jack Munro (NUSMW) 1925: Ernest Hookway 1927: Will Crick 1927: Eric Gower 1932: Abraham Moss - RCA 1935: Fred Harrison - NSMM 1938: Bob Bradfield 1940: Tom Brown - NAUSAWC 1944: Jim Porter - USDAW 1946: Jim Cunnick - USDAW 1950: Edmund Dell - ASSET 1951: Jim Porter - USDAW 1953: L. H. Addie - CSCA 1954: Jim Cunnick 1957: Jim Porter - USDAW 1959: Edmund Dell - ASSET 1961: Eddie Marsden - CEU 1964: Ernest Pearson - AEU 1967: Eddie Marsden - CEU 1969: C. Davies 1970: Frances Dean - USDAW 1975: Mick Gadian - NUTGW 1978: M. Bury 1980: T. Keane 1982: Denis Maher - CEU 1988: Tony Lucas - MU 1989: Henry Suss - GMB Clothing and Textile Section 1991: Harry Spooner - NASUWT 2004: Sharon Green - PCS 2013: Annette Wright - PCS 2017: Alexander Davidson - PCS 2018: Annette Wright - PCS 2019: Ian Allinson - Unite 2020: Ian Allinson - Unite 2025: Chris Neville - Unite 2026: Chris Neville - Unite

Vice Presidents 1945/46/47: Frances Dean 1948/49: E Pearson 1950:P Jackson 1951: J Porter 1952:P Jackson 1955/56: J Porter 1957/58: E Dell 1959/60: E Marsden 1961/62/63: E Pearson 1964/65/66: E Marsden 1967/68: C Davies 1969/70: A Harvey 1973/74:S Gadian 1977/78/79: F Hodgkinson 1980/81:D Maher 1982/83/84: JP Gunn 1985-89: Henry Suss 1989-91: G Peel 2004: Sarah Livesey - USDAW 2013: John Clegg - Unite 2019: John Morgan - NEU 2020: John Morgan - NEU 2025: Chris Jones - Unite 2026: Martin Hall - Unite

References

'and the new paths are begun' Manchester Trades Council History Vol 2 Jim Arnison and Edmund and Ruth Frow

External links Official site