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Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants

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The Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (ASRS) was a trade union of railway workers in the United Kingdom from 1872 until 1913.

Contents

The ASRS was an industrial union founded in 1871 with the support of the Liberal MP Michael Bass. Its early years were difficult. In 1872 the ASRS reported having 17,247 members but by 1882 this had declined to only 6,321.

In 1880 the ASRS's growth was challenged by the foundation of two railway craft unions: the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen and the United Pointsmen and Signalmen's Society. A fourth union, the General Railway Workers' Union, was founded in 1889.

In 1900 the ASRS proposed amalgamation with ASLEF but ASLEF proposed federation with the drivers and firemen of the ASRS. A Scheme of Federation was drafted and ASLEF's triennial conference adopted it in 1903. There were joint meetings of the Executive Committees of the two unions until 1906 when relations broke down.

In 1907 the Board of Trade set up a Conciliation Board between railway employees and their employers, but its operation dissatisfied many workers and ASLEF's General Secretary nicknamed it the "Confiscation" Board. In August 1911 the ASRS, ASLEF, GRWU and UPSS jointly called the United Kingdom's first national rail strike. In only two days the joint action succeeded in forcing the Liberal Government to set up a Royal Commission to examine the workings of the Conciliation Board.

In 1913 the ASRS, GRWU and UPSS merged, forming the National Union of Railwaymen.

General Secretaries

1871: George Chapman 1874: Fred W. Evans 1883: Edward Harford 1897: Richard Bell 1909: J. E. Williams

Presidents

1872: J. Baxter Langley 1874: John David Jenkins 1877: Peter Stewart Macliver 1892: Walter Hudson 1899: George Thaxton 1902: W. G. Loraine 1905: James Henry Thomas 1907: J. R. Bell 1910: E. Charles 1911: Albert Bellamy

References

Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants Wikipedia