British Steel Smelters, Mill, Iron, Tinplate and Kindred Trades Association (the British Steel Smelters' Amalgamated Association before 1902)

Rules, 1887-1917; signed executive council minutes, 1886-1890; list of subjects for discussion at the annual conference of delegates, 1890; records concerning the [Welsh] Tinplate Trade Conciliation Board and other operational matters, 1891-1916; printed monthly and other reports, 1886-1918, including executive council minutes and financial statements; leaflets, handbills, circulars and other printed matter, 1895-1917; “Press Cuttings Relating to Mr John Hodge and Political Movements”, 1916-1917.

This union was founded as the British Steel Smelters' Amalgamated Association on 8 January 1886 following a strike at David Colville and Sons' Motherwell works in 1885. At its first delegate conference in 1888 it had six branches in Scotland, eight in England and six in Wales. By 1891 it was established in five additional districts in Glasgow, Darlington, Preston, Sheffield and Swansea. In 1917 its members were transferred to the British Iron, Steel and Kindred Trades Association, which in turn affiliated to the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation.

This collection is available to researchers by appointment at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick. See https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/using/

These records were deposited at the Modern Records Centre by the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation (ISTC) in 1974, 1996 and 2003 and by Community, the successor union to the ISTC, in 2006.

Link to full catalogue: https://mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk/records/BSS

Records of the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation/British Iron, Steel and Kindred Trades Association (including some inherited from British Steel Smelters, Mill, Iron, Tinplate and Kindred Trades Association)