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General Union of Loom Overlookers

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The General Union of Loom Overlookers (GULO) was a trade union representing junior supervisors in textile manufacturing in the United Kingdom. While most members were based in Lancashire, it also had members in Yorkshire, East Anglia and Essex.[2]

General Union of Loom Overlookers
PredecessorNational Confederate Association of Power Loom Overlookers
Founded17 May 1885
Dissolved2007
HeadquartersBlackburn
Location
Members
5,176 (1907)[1]
8,820 (1933)[2]
2,410 (1979)
AffiliationsGFTU, Labour, NCTTF, TUC, UTFWA

History

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In 1875, a National Confederate Association of Power Loom Overlookers was established as a loose organisation of sixteen local trade unions, most based in Lancashire. As all its affiliates were very small, its total membership was around 1,000. In 1885, it organised a conference with the larger Blackburn and Pendleton unions, which saw themselves as friendly societies and had refused to join the confederation. The conference was successful, and the General Union of Associations of Power-Loom Overlookers was established. It took part in a large number of local strikes in its early years.[2]

Affiliates included:

Union[2] Founded Affiliated Membership (1907)[3] Notes
Accrington and District 1878 1885 121 Dissolved 1982
Ashton-under-Lyne and District 1872 1885 174 Merged into Hyde and District 1961
Bacup and District 1907 1907 83 Merged into Haslingden and District 1964
Bamber Bridge 1879 1885 76 Merged into Preston and Districts 1918
Blackburn and District 1850 1885 350
Bolton and District 1871 1885 339 Merged into United Association 1984
Burnley and District 1884 1885 571 Dissolved 1974
Bury and District 1892 143
Chorley and District 1878 1885 184 Merged into Preston and Districts 1973
Church and Oswaldtwistle 1867 1908 77 Merged into Great Harwood 1960
Clitheroe c.1930 N/A
Colne and District 1883 285 Merged into EETPU 1991
Darwen and District 1858 1,325 Dissolved 1960s
Derby 1937 1937 N/A Merged into United Association 1978
Glossop 1875 1885 N/A Merged into Hadfield 1901
Hadfield and District 1886 1893 120 Merged into Hyde 1976
Haslingden and District 1890 101 Merged into EETPU 1990
Heywood and District 1868 1893 81 Dissolved 1982
Hyde and District 1872 1885 108
Leigh 1893 1893 56 Merged into Bolton 1973
Longridge and District 1888 1888 45 Merged into Preston and Districts 1966
National 1865 1885 581 Merged into EETPU 1990
Nelson and District 1889 513 Merged into EETPU 1989
Oldham 1870 1885 195 Merged into United Association 1990
Preston and Districts 1875 1885 665 Merged into Blackburn and District 1988
Radcliffe and District 1875 1893 89 Dissolved 1972
Skipton and District 1896 1896 102
Stalybridge and District 1871 1885 88 Dissolved 1976
United 1887 535 Dissolved 1997
Wigan 1880s 1885 Merged into EETPU 1990

The union was keen to support broader trade union ventures. It was a founder member of the Labour Representation Committee,[4] and affiliated to the United Textile Factory Workers' Association,[5] the General Federation of Trade Unions and the Trades Union Congress.[6] It was also a founder member of the Northern Counties Textile Trades Federation.[2]

Early in the 1900s, the association changed its name to become the General Union of Associations of Loom Overlookers. Membership continued to grow until 1933, when it peaked at 8,820. It remained steady at around 5,000 until 1960, at which point 25 unions were affiliated. However, membership then began to fall, in line with the decline in the British cotton industry.[2] In response, in 1971, the union founded the "British Federation of Textile Technicians" with two smaller, independent unions: the Yorkshire Association of Power Loom Overlookers and the Scottish Union of Power Loom Overlookers.[7]

By 1979, the union consisted of fourteen local unions, although their total membership was only 2,410.[6] It suffered a dramatic loss of membership as mills closed during the 1980s and 1990s, with only 265 members remaining at the end of the century.[8] By 1997, it had only two affiliates, the United Association of Power Loom Overlookers and the Amalgamated Power Loom Overlookers, and that year its federal structure was abandoned, members instead joining the central body, now renamed the "General Union of Loom Overlookers".[9] Despite this change, membership continued to drop, falling to only 138 in 2007, when the union was dissolved.[10] Former members of the union transferred to the GMB.[11]

General Secretaries

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1885: John Sidebotham
1905: James E. Tattersall
1913: James E. Tattersall and Edward Duxbury
1921: Edward Duxbury
1935: Jeremiah Proctor
1949: Fred Titherington
1963: Arthur Howcroft
1976: Harold Brown
1982: R. Richardson
1986: Eddie Macro
1990: Don Rishton

References

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  1. ^ Report on Trade Unions in 1905-1907. London: Board of Trade. 1909. pp. 121–124.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Marsh, Arthur; Ryan, Victoria; Smethurst, John B. (1994). Historical Directory of Trade Unions. Vol. 4. Farnham: Ashgate. pp. 146–172. ISBN 9780859679008.
  3. ^ Report on Trade Unions in 1905-1907. London: Board of Trade. 1909. pp. 26–29.
  4. ^ Richard Biernacki, The Fabrication of Labor: Germany and Britain, 1640-1914, p.467
  5. ^ P. F. Clarke, Lancashire and the New Liberalism, p.93
  6. ^ a b Eaton, Jack; Gill, Colin (1981). The Trade Union Directory. London: Pluto Press. p. 183.
  7. ^ "Alliance of textile unions", The Guardian, 23 February 1971, p.4
  8. ^ Roger Undy, Trade Union Merger Strategies, p.35
  9. ^ Gary Daniels and John McIlroy, Trade Unions in a Neoliberal World, p.134
  10. ^ Jonathan Sale, There is no power in these unions, The Guardian, 8 September 2008
  11. ^ GMB, "Transfers of Engagements"
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