Founded 1913 Members 408,900 (1945) | Date dissolved 1990 Affiliation TUC | |
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Merged into National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers Office location Unity House, Euston Road, London | ||
The National Union of Railwaymen was a trade union of railway workers in the United Kingdom.
Contents
History
The NUR was an industrial union founded in 1913 by the merger of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (founded 1872), the United Pointsmen and Signalmen's Society (founded 1880) and the General Railway Workers' Union (founded 1889).
The NUR represented the majority of railway workers, but not white-collar workers, who were members of the Railway Clerks' Association (founded 1897, later the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association). NUR membership was open to drivers and firemen but most chose instead to be members of the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (founded 1880).
In 1914 the NUR joined forces with the National Transport Workers' Federation and Mining Federation of Great Britain to form the Triple Alliance – perhaps an unfortunate name, as the same year the Triple Entente of Britain, France and Russia and the Triple Alliance of Germany, and Austria-Hungary (albeit without Italy) went to war.
In 1919 the NUR and ASLEF jointly organised the 1919 United Kingdom railway strike, which prevented a proposed wage reduction and won an eight-hour maximum working day. The NUR formed Federation agreements with ASLEF in 1903 and 1982 but both were short-lived.
The NUR had 408,900 members in 1945, making it the fifth largest union in Britain. Its membership fell to 369,400 in 1956 and 227,800 in 1966.
In 1990 the NUR merged with the National Union of Seamen to form the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) and ceased to exist as a separate union.
General Secretaries
Source:
1913: James Edwin Williams 1916: James Henry Thomas 1931: Charlie Cramp 1933: John Marchbank 1943: John Benstead 1948: Jim Figgins 1953: Jim Campbell 1957: Sidney Greene 1975: Sidney Weighell 1983: Jimmy KnappPresidents
Source:
1913: Albert Bellamy 1918: Charlie Cramp 1920: William James Abraham 1922: John Marchbank 1925: William Dobbie 1928: J. Gore 1931: William Dobbie 1934: Joseph Henderson 1937: Walter T. Griffiths 1939: J. H. Potts 1942: Frederick Burrows 1945: John Edward Binks 1948: William Tindall Potter 1951: Henry Franklin 1954: Jim Stafford 1957: Tom Hollywood 1958: Charles W. Evans 1961: Bill Rathbone 1964: Frank Donlon 1967: Frank Lane 1970: George Chambers 1972: Harold McRitchie 1975: Dave Bowman 1978: 1982: Tom Ham 1984: George Wakenshaw 1987: Alan Foster 1990: John Cogger