The History of Trade Unionism / (Revised edition, extended to 1920)

by Sidney Webb; Beatrice Webb

THE STATISTICAL PROGRESS OF TRADE UNION MEMBERSHIP

It is unfortunately impossible to present any complete statistics of Trade Union membership at different periods. Until the appointment, in 1886, of John Burnett as Labour Correspondent to the Board of Trade, no attempt was made to collect any statistics of the movement; and the old Unions seldom possess a complete series of their own archives. The Friendly Society of Ironfounders, it is true, has exact figures since its establishment in 1809. No total figures can be given with any confidence.

The following tables may be useful as placing on record such comparative figures as we have been able to collect:

1. Amalgamated Society of Engineers.
2. Friendly Society of Ironfounders.
3. Steam Engine Makers’ Society.
4. Associated Ironmoulders of Scotland.
5. United Society of Boilermakers and Iron Shipwrights.
6. Operative Stonemasons’ Friendly Society.
7. Operative Bricklayers’ Society.
8. General Union of Operative Carpenters and Joiners.
9. Typographical Association.
10. London Society of Compositors.
11. Bookbinders’ and Machine Rulers’ Consolidated Union.
12. United Kingdom Society of Coachmakers.
13. Flint Glass Makers’ Friendly Society.
14. Amicable and Brotherly Society of Machine Printers.
15. Machine, Engine, and Iron Grinders’ Society.
16. Associated Blacksmiths’ Society.
17. Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners.
18. Associated Carpenters and Joiners.
19. National Association of Operative Plasterers.
20. Northumberland Miners’ Mutual Confident Association.
21. United Journeymen Brassfounders’ Association of Great Britain and Ireland.
22. United Operative Plumbers’ Association.
23. Alliance Cabinet Makers’ Association.
24. United Operative Bricklayers’ Trade, Accident, Sick, and Burial Society.
25. Amalgamated Society of Tailors.
26. Amalgamated Association of Operative Cotton Spinners.
27. Glass Bottle Makers of Yorkshire United Trade Protection Society.
28. Durham Miners’ Association.
29. National Society of Amalgamated Brassworkers.
30. United Pattern Makers’ Association.
31. National Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives.
32. Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants.
33. Yorkshire Miners’ Association.
34. United Machine Workers’ Association.
35. National Amalgamated Furnishing Trades Association.
36. Railway Clerks’ Association.
37. Amalgamated Tramway and Vehicle Workers.
38. National Union of Dock Labourers.
39. British Steel Smelters.
40. National Amalgamated Union of Shop Assistants.
41. Amalgamated Union of Co-operative Employees.
42. National Union of Clerks.
43. Workers’ Union.
44. Amalgamated Musicians’ Union.
45. National Amalgamated Union of Labour.
46. Postmen’s Federation.
47. Post Office Engineering Stores.

Table showing the Membership of certain Trade Unions at Successive Periods, from 1850 to 1918 inclusive.

Number of Society.	Year of Estab­lish­ment.	1850.	1855.	1860.	1865.	1870.	1875.	1880.	1885.	1890.	1900.	1910.	1918.
1.	1851[740]	5,000	12,553	20,935	30,984	34,711	44,032	44,692	51,689	67,928	87,672	110,733	298,782
2.	1809	4,073	5,685	7,973	10,604	8,994	12,336	11,580	12,376	14,821	18,357	17,990	28,586
3.	1824	2,068	1,662	2,050	2,521	2,819	3,871	4,134	5,062	5,822	8,566	14,401	27,206
4.	1831	814	1,381	2,084	3,046	2,766	4,346	4,664	5,611	6,198	7,504	7,880	7,961
5.	1832	1,771	3,500	4,146	8,621	7,261	16,191	17,688	28,212	32,926	47,670	49,393	95,761
6.	1832	4,671	8,093	9,125	15,483	13,965	24,543	12,610	11,285	12,538	19,419	7,055	4,929
7.	1848	340	924	1,641	4,320	1,441	4,832	5,700	6,412	12,740	38,830	23,284	34,441
8.	1827	535	1,180	2,228	6,986	8,008	10,885	4,420	1,734	2,485	7,727	5,653	12,000
9.	1849	603	1,288	1,473	1,992	2,430	3,600	5,350	6,551	9,016	16,179	21,436	11,602
10.	1848	1,800	2,300	2,650	2,800	3,350	4,200	5,100	6,435	8,910	11,287	12,230	12,940
11.	1835	420	340	500	748	915	1,670	1,501	1,788	2,910	4,064	5,027	— [741]
12.	1834	1,567	3,040	4,086	4,599	5,801	7,251	4,989	4,560	5,367	6,536	6,854	15,118
13.	1849	500	897	1,355	1,606	1,776	2,005	1,963	1,985	2,123	2,409	916	775
14.	1841	375	452	508	530	570	650	690	740	860	963	983	228
15.	1844	200	110	330	449	280	390	258	277	304	433	703	746
		24,737	43,405	61,084	95,289	95,087	140,802	125,339	144,717	184,948	277,616	284,538	551,075
16.	1857	—	—	856	1,815	1,590	2,113	2,002	2,335	2,300	2,933	2,953	17,238
17.	1860	—	—	618	5,670	10,178	14,917	17,764	25,781	31,495	65,012	55,785	}124,841
18.	1861	—	—	—	4,453	3,585	6,642	4,673	4,535	4,742	9,808	3,964
19.	1862	—	—	—	4,441	2,461	3,742	3,211	2,110	4,236	11,009	6,522	4,110
20.	1863	—	—	—	4,250	5,328	17,561	10,707	13,128	16,961	23,950	37,361	40,000
21.	1866	—	—	—	—	1,457	1,821	1,890	2,344	2,162	—	5,241	7,500
22.	1832	?	?	?	?	1,537	1,679	2,232	2,666	5,350	11,186	10,907	13,000
23.	1865	—	—	—	?	242	1,965	1,346	1,246	4,298	5,270	—	—[742]
24.	1832	?		?	?	3,850	7,350	3,282	1,975	1,725	3,428	1,655	2,950
25.	1866	—	—	—	—	4,006	14,352	12,583	13,969	16,629	13,439	12,143	29,422
26.	1853	—	?	?	?	10,518	14,257	11,834	16,579	18,145	18,384	22,992	24,806
27.	1860	—	—	?	?	792	1,120	1,061	1,522	1,899	2,840	2,450	2,800
28.	1869	—	—	—	—	1,899	38,000	30,000	35,000	49,000	80,260	121,805	126,250
						142,530	266,321	227,924	267,907	343,890	546,135	559,316	944,992
29.	1872	—	—	—	—	—	5,271	4,633	3,582	7,958	8,675	7,373	25,000
30.	1872	—	—	—	—	—	418	824	1,241	2,205	4,604	7,214	10,290
31.	1874	—	—	—	—	—	4,311	6,404	10,464	23,459	27,960	30,197	83,017
32.	1872	—	—	—	—	—	13,018	8,589	9,052	26,360	62,023	75,153	—[743]
33.	1858	—	—	?	?	?	8,000	2,800	8,000	50,000	54,475	88,271	100,400
34.	1844	?	?	?	?	?	276	279	455	2,501	3,769	4,843	23,374
							297,615	251,453	300,701	456,373	707,641	772,367	1,187,073
35.	1902	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	6,248 (1902)	6,685	47,220
36.	1897	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	1,550	9,476	66,130
37.	1889	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	?	9,214	17,076	40,564
38.	1889	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	?	13,388	14,253	45,000
39.	1886	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	?	10,467	17,491	40,000(?)[744]
40.	1891	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	7,551	22,426	83,000 (1919)
41.	1891	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	6,733	29,886	87,134
42.	1891	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	82	3,166	35,000
43.	1898	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	?	2,879	5,016	230,000
44.	1893	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	3,286	6,182	14,649
45.	1889	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	?	21,111	16,017	143,931
46.	1891	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	23,180	37,892	65,078
47.	1896	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	940	3,500	14,000
											106,629	189,046	911,706
											814,270	961,413	2,098,779

We have suggested that it is doubtful whether, in 1842, there were as many as 100,000 enrolled and contributing members. A quarter of a century later George Howell and others could talk vaguely of a million members, but we doubt whether this number was reached until the years of good trade that followed 1871. In 1878-80 there was a great falling off, and we doubt whether the aggregate of a million was again reached until 1885. In 1892 we recorded a million and a half. Not until the end of the century were two millions attained—a number doubled by 1915, and in the last four or five years again increased by over fifty per cent.

Table showing the aggregate Trade Union Membership in groups of Industries at the end of each of the years 1892-1917 inclusive. [745]

Year.	Building.	Mining and Quarrying.	Metal, Engineering, and Shipbuilding.	Textile.	Clothing.	Transport.	Other Trades.			Total, all Unions.
1892	157,971	315,272	279,534	204,022	83,299	154,947	307,313			1,502,358
1893	172,870	318,112	266,813	205,546	80,768	142,084	293,224			1,479,417
1894	178,721	307,276	263,572	214,331	81,786	123,896	266,718			1,436,300
1895	179,283	280,065	269,169	218,805	78,560	120,475	261,479			1,407,836
1896	193,341	279,977	303,518	217,950	76,997	134,877	287,805			1,494,465
1897	215,603	283,054	319,745	218,619	75,852	183,994	317,131			1,613,998
							⏞ ⏞ ⏞ ⏞ ⏞ ⏞ ⏞ ⏞ ⏞
							Printing, Paper, etc.	Wood-working.	Other Trades.
1898	232,040	366,731	312,444	240,895	69,954	147,957	54,436	——	264,074	1,688,531
1899	249,988	445,706	335,746	245,301	66,777	163,685	56,727	——	284,640	1,848,570
1900	253,412	524,150	342,079	245,438	67,183	171,599	57,228	——	294,615	1,955,704
1901	248,967	530,953	338,468	243,474	65,660	169,199	58,274	——	311,766	1,966,761
1902	245,141	532,082	337,064	246,829	64,094	158,714	59,062	——	310,321	1,953,307
1903	238,141	529,028	337,122	244,081	61,713	159,051	60,138	——	301,769	1,931,043
1904	225,149	501,764	334,822	246,473	58,598	159,788	62,428	——	306,087	1,895,109
1905	205,179	496,828	340,364	266,416	60,394	167,017	62,368	——	321,807	1,920,373
1906	196,492	571,336	361,453	302,968	59,806	190,155	64,451	——	367,145	2,113,806
1907	193,190	703,344	376,805	354,427	68,810	238,813	68,221	——	403,136	2,406,746
1908	177,718	719,384	365,134	362,540	65,637	230,642	72,970	41,797	353,505	2,388,727
1909	162,278	722,639	359,838	366,445	65,882	224,037	71,531	39,240	357,177	2,369,067
1910	156,985	731,305	370,055	379,644	67,158	245,223	74,275	38,881	382,816	2,446,342
1911	173,182	752,419	415,176	436,927	74,423	513,538	77,252	45,474	530,512	3,018,903
1912	203,773	757,147	479,471	478,097	91,855	514,724	76,807	50,853	635,107	3,287,884
1913	248,647	915,734	538,541	515,684	105,929	699,952	84,414	64,442	813,772	3,987,115
1914	235,828	870,198	557,769	497,494	102,538	705,501	92,283	64,296	796,902	3,918,809
1915	228,475	857,183	633,502	507,731	114,085	737,004	97,290	65,210	886,313	4,126,793
1916	229,272	877,694	695,347	530,411	121,656	803,872	97,669	69,403	1,012,623	4,437,947
1917	257,286	941,120	847,202	627,919	149,756	903,109	109,586	83,369	1,360,165	5,287,522

FOOTNOTES: