Founded 1920 Members 118,700 (1945) | Date dissolved 1991 Affiliation Trade Union Congress | |
Full name National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers Merged into General, Municipal and Boilermakers and Allied Trades Union | ||
The National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers (NUTGW) was a trade union in the United Kingdom.
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History
The union was founded as the Tailors and Garment Workers' Union (T&GWU) in 1920 with the merger of the Scottish Operative Tailors and Tailoresses' Association and the United Garment Workers' Union. In 1932, it was joined by the Amalgamated Society of Tailors and Tailoresses and renamed itself as the "National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers". In 1939 it absorbed the United Ladies Tailors' Trade Union. The NUTGW had 118,700 members in 1945, making it the tenth largest union in Britain. It absorbed the Manchester-based Waterproof Garment Workers' Trade Union in 1972.
The NUTGW faced a long-term decline in membership over the second half of the 20th century as the number of workers employed in the British clothing industry shrunk. This was largely due to competition with foreign manufacturers. By 1990 membership had fallen to less than 70,000, from a peak of over 130,000 in 1950. The NUTGW merged into the General, Municipal, Boilermakers and Allied Trades Union in 1991.