Uniting the Tailors

Trade Unionism amoungst the Tailors of London and Leeds 1870-1939

Anne J. Kershen

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317791980
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Economic Theory
• Index: Economics

This book is not only about the tailoring industry and its trade unions; it is about the experience of eastern European immigrants in a trade as old as the Bible and yet as new as the electric sewing machine; it is about the role of women in a new industry and about the impact of socio-economic change on fashion. Finally, it is about the way in which sub-divisions and differences were accommodated under the umbrella of one particular trade union.

1 Backcloth

The 1916 Report being the first Annual Report of the United Garment Workers' Trade Union will probably help the members to realise that the U.G.W.T.U. is an accomplished fact and that they are no longer members of their old separate organisations, but all members of one Trade Union.

Moses Sclare, Financial Secretary, UGWTU¹

The formation of the United Garment Workers' Trade Union (UGWTU) in 1915 fused six independent clothing unions which between them covered the spectrum of tailoring, from the highest quality bespoke to the poorest class of ready-made. The 1915 amalgamation was part of a trend towards federations and general unions which began in the early 1900s, accelerated following the 1917 Amalgamation Act and reached its peak in the early 1920s.² The new clothing workers' union, with its inaugural membership of 21,457,³ made little impact on a trade union world which had seen the creation of the mighty 180,000-strong National Union of Railwaymen two years earlier⁴ and which was now preoccupied with the effects of war on British industry and its labour force. Though the UGWTU represented less than nine per cent of the 249,467 employed in the manufacture of clothing in Britain,⁵ the amalgamation, which few trade union commentators have considered of consequence,⁶ was of undoubted significance. It demonstrated to those both within and outside the industry that workers from disparate backgrounds, of both genders and with different levels of skill, could merge into one representative body. Furthermore, it proved that Jewish sub-divisional tailors and tailoresses, Gentile craftsmen and factory operatives could overcome industrial differences and ethnic and religious divides in order to work towards a common goal.

The six participants in the amalgamation of 1915 were:

Unions	Membership
The Amalgamated Union of Clothing Operatives	12,000
The Amalgamated Jewish Tailors', Machiners' and Pressers' Trade Union	4,500
The London Society of Tailors and Tailoresses	1,600
The London Jewish Tailors' and Tailoresses' Trade Union	1,800
The London and Provincial Clothiers' Cutters' Trade Union	400
The Manchester Waterproof Garment Makers' Trade Union	700

Note: (The membership figures given above are based on those that appeared in the ‘Result of Ballot Vote re-Amalgamation’ statement issued by the Scottish operative Tailors' and Tailoresses Association in September 1914.⁷ The difference between the 1914 total and that issued at the time of the 1915 amalgamation is accounted for by the expansion of industry and work-force due to the demands of war.

The Amalgamated Union of Clothing Operatives (AUCO) originated in Leeds as the all-male Leeds Wholesale Clothing Operatives' Union (LWCOU) in the climactic year of 1889. At the time of the amalgamation its membership was composed of male and female clothing operatives employed in factories throughout the country. Jewish male and female tailors employed in workshops in Leeds and other major provincial cities were represented by the Amalgamated Jewish Tailors', Machiners' and Pressers' Trade Union (AJTMP), founded in Leeds in 1893 after previous Jewish tailoring unions in the city had failed. The London Society of Tailors and Tailoresses (LST&T), essentially a craft union, was created after the West End branch of the Amalgamated Society of Tailors and Tailoresses (AST&T, originally the Amalgamated Society of Tailors — AST — until the admission of women in 1900) broke away from its parent body in 1905. The élite of the industry, the skilled cutters, were represented by the London Clothiers' Cutters' Trade Union (LCCTU) while over 30 per cent⁸ of the organised Jewish tailoring workers employed in the capital's tailoring workshops were represented by the London Jewish Tailors' and Tailoresses' Trade Union (LJT&TTU), founded in 1908. The Manchester Waterproof Garment Makers' Trade Union, founded in 1889, was the only one of the six unions whose headquarters was in neither London nor Leeds. At the time of the amalgamation the union had a predominantly, though not totally, Jewish membership, but although 50 per cent of its 700 affiliates voted in favour of fusion, the union seceded shortly after the amalgamation took place.⁹

None of the above unions existed prior to what Professor Clegg has termed the ‘phenomenon of new unionism’.¹⁰ But this is not to suggest that there were no links with the past. As will be illustrated below, while in some instances it took the arrival of new unions such as those of the match-girls and dockers, combined with the efforts of members of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) and the Socialist League (SL), to persuade the disgruntled labour force of the benefits of combination, other tailoring workers had been involved with trade societies, in one form or another, since shortly after the emergence of a market-based economy.

The wholesale production of tailored garments in London and Leeds was begun at different times and under different conditions. In each case the composition of the labour force was fashioned by the pattern of development. In London's East and West Ends the sale of clothes, both new and second-hand, could be traced back to the fifteenth century.¹¹ In Leeds, with the exception of the presence of a small number of bespoke tailors,¹² the birth of the clothing industry was very much a part of the second phase of industrialisation and the golden decade of the 1850s.

London, as the centre of finance, government and the Court provided a natural market for high-class bespoke tailored garments.¹³ Custom came from the affluent members of the resident population and from wealthy visitors from the provinces and overseas who wanted their ‘best clothes made in London’, if possible in Savile Row, the area in the heart of Mayfair renowned for exclusive craft tailoring. During the first half of the nineteenth century the market expanded to encompass consumers who, even if unable to afford the more expensive tailoring establishments, still wanted newly made garments. As a result shops selling lower quality bespoke clothes opened around the periphery of Savile Row. Production methods varied. Some orders were made up on shop premises by craft tailors while others were produced by outworkers employed in the workshops of nearby Soho. A small percentage was sent to the East End where levels of skill and quality of garment produced varied even within individual workshops.

The area along the eastern perimeter of the City of London had an association with second-hand clothing that dated back to Tudor times. During the first half of the nineteenth century second-hand gave way to new slop and shoddy garments. In 1830 H. Hyam opened a shop in the East End to sell slop clothes in large quantities. The feasibility of the mass production of garments which were of poor quality and rough material resulted from three main factors, (a) the earlier industrial revolution in textile production which had increased supplies and reduced costs, (b) by the early 1830s, the availability of shoddy¹⁴ and (c) the increased use of sub-divisional labour. Several years later E. Moses opened his ‘humble warehouse’ at 154 Minories. By 1846 the warehouse had been transformed into a vast emporium ‘to which custom came from all over the metropolis’ to purchase clothes which ranged in price from 8s. 6d. for a ready-made suit to as much as three or four guineas for a bespoke garment suitable for those members of the aristocracy unable to afford Savile Row prices.¹⁵ With the exception of the unemployed and the unemployable and those caught in the poverty trap of casual, seasonal and exploited labour, the second half of the nineteenth century was a period in which the working population enjoyed an improving standard ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• 1 Backcloth
• 2 The Leeds Wholesale Clothing Industry: Origins and Growth
• 3 Organising the Tailors of Leeds, 1870–1915
• 4 The Structure of the London Tailoring Trade, 1870–1915
• 5 Organising the Tailors of London
• 6 Uniting the Tailors
• Conclusion
• Appendix: Tables
• Bibliography
• Index