Trades Union Congress 1920-1960


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Summary Description

Historical Note

Scope and Content

System of arrangement

Index Headings

Access conditions

Restrictions

Preferred citation

Administrative Information

Acquisition information

Appraisal information

Accruals

Copies available

Processing Information

Separated material

Other finding aids

Trades Union Congress 1920-1960

The Modern Records Centre wishes to acknowledge the generous support and funding of the Leverhulme Trust in the preparation of the finding aids for this collection and the accompanying Sources Booklet. Conversion of the catalogue into EAD format was made possible by a grant from the Research Support Libraries Programme, as part of A Mine of Information: Cataloguing the South Wales Coalfield, a project led by the University of Wales, Swansea.


Summary Description

Held atModern Records Centre, University of Warwick
Name of Creator Trades Union Congress
TitleTrades Union Congress
Dates of Creation1920-1960
ReferenceMSS.292
Extent50 cubic metres
Level of Description File Language of Material English unless otherwise stated

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Historical Note

The TUC was formed in Manchester in 1868 as a voluntary association of trade unions. The organisation is governed by an annual Congress which determines policy. Between 1869 and 1921 the administrative work of the Congress was carried out by the Parliamentary Committee. Since 1921, this work has been carried out by the General Council and by a gradually increasing number of committees, including Finance and General Purposes, Disputes, Education, Organisation, Social Insurance, International, Economic and Production.

Reference: Ross M. Martin, TUC: The growth of a pressure group 1868-1976 (Oxford, 1980).

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Scope and Content

Registry files, principally comprising correspondence, reports, minutes, agreements, background documentation and collected documents, including printed items, 1920-1960.

System of arrangement

This collection forms part of the Trades Union Congress Archive (MSS.292) and was the first of four principal deposits by the TUC. This collection was deposited with the Centre in batches between 1987 and 1991. In October 1995, a further deposit of TUC papers, for the period 1888-1987, was received. These were not derived from the registry system and their contents predominantly cover the period 1920-1960. The deposit thus acts as a supplement to this present collection and was accessioned separately as MSS.292C.

The records were prepared for deposit by the TUC's Registry, whose records essentially comprise the archive. The records have been kept in registry order and retain its decimal classification system. The registry system breaks down as follows :

  • 000-099 : Trade unionism
  • 100-199 : Labour conditions
  • 200-299 : Industrial relations
  • 300-399 : Capitalism
  • 400-499 : Public finance
  • 500-599 : Commerce and economics
  • 600-699 : Industries
  • 700-799 : Politics and government; publicity
  • 800-899 : Social issues
  • 900-999 : International
These broad subjects could be further divided into more specific sections, e.g. the classification for West Africa is 966 which can be further subdivided into 966.1 for the Gambia, 966.2 for Ghana, etc.

In assigning the TUC files a reference in the Centre's catalogue, the number of the first file in a box has been used to give all subsequent files in that box their number, i.e. if the first file related to the Gambia and the second to Ghana, in the Centre's scheme both would be given the reference 966.1 and would become in the catalogue MSS.292B/966.1/1 and MSS.292B/966.1/2. The prefixes MSS.292B, 292C and 292D are necessary to identify the records belonging to the 1960-70 TUC archive, the supplement to this, the 1920-60, archive and the 1970-87 archive. Theoretically, this collection is MSS.292A, although the A is generally not used.

The archive has been catalogued to file level. A copy of this catalogue is available both online and in paper format. In the online version, the list has been broadly divided into the major TUC registry series. The catalogues for each section can be reached by clicking on the hyperlinks below.

A catalogue in paper format is available in the Centre's searchroom, at the National Register of Archives in London and in Chadwyck-Healey's National Inventory of Documentary Sources. Catalogues for the TUC archive 1960-70 are also available in these locations. That for the 1970-87 archive is only held in the Centre's searchroom. Online finding aids for the 1920-60 additional files (MSS.292C) and 1960-70 archive (MSS.292B) can also be consulted through these links. Similarly, collection-level descriptions exist in electronic format for the post-1970 archive (MSS.292D) and for the TUC archive as a whole (MSS.292).

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Index Headings

  • Arbitration, Industrial -- Great Britain
  • Capitalism -- Great Britain
  • Collective bargaining -- Great Britain
  • Economics -- Great Britain
  • Finance, Public -- Great Britain
  • Great Britain -- Commerce
  • Industrial relations -- Great Britain
  • Industry
  • International labor activities
  • Labor and laboring classes -- Great Britain
  • Labor and laboring classes -- Great Britain -- Political activity
  • Politics, Practical
  • Publicity
  • Social history
  • Social indicators -- Great Britain
  • Social institutions -- Great Britain
  • Social policy
  • Social problems
  • Strikes and lockouts -- Great Britain
  • Trade and professional associations -- Great Britain
  • Trade-unions -- Great Britain
  • Trade-unions -- Law and legislation -- Great Britain
  • Trade-unions -- Great Britain -- Political activity
  • Trade-unions -- Great Britain -- Records and correspondence
  • Trade-unions and mass media -- Great Britain
  • Work environment -- Great Britain
  • Trades Union Congress
  • TUC
  • T.U.C.

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Access conditions

The archive is open to researchers without need for prior permission from the TUC. It is subject to a general ten year closure rule.

Restrictions on use

There are no restrictions on the use of this archive, apart from the requirements of copyright law.

Preferred citation

Trades Union Congress (MSS.292), Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick

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Administrative Information

Acquisition information

This collection forms part of the Trades Union Congress Archive (MSS.292) and was the first of four principal deposits by the TUC. It was received in batches between March 1987 and 1996. An initial three-year project to catalogue and publicise the TUC archive 1920-60 was made possible by a grant from the Leverhulme Trust Fund. The project culminated in 1992 with the publication of Sources Booklet No. 5: The Trades Union Congress Archive 1920-60. Conversion of the catalogue into EAD format was made possible by a grant from the Research Support Libraries Programme, as part of A Mine of Information: Cataloguing the South Wales Coalfield, a project led by the University of Wales, Swansea.

Appraisal information

The collection has been weeded for duplicates.

Accruals

This is an on-going deposit.

Copies available

The Parliamentary Committee and General Council minutes, Annual Congress Reports, TUC pamphlets and selected other series of papers are also available in microform.

Processing Information

Originally processed and catalogued by Sarah Duffield, November 1991. Finding aid converted and edited by Victoria Peters, February 2001. Collection level created by Alan Crookham, August 1999 and amended by Victoria Peters, February 2001.

Catalogued to file level.

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Separated material

Some manuscript material, such as the Gertrude Tuckwell papers, and publications are held in the TUC Library at the University of North London.

Other finding aids

A photocopy of the TUC�s subject index is available at the Centre.

An authority file exists for the Trades Union Congress (GBR 0152 AAR1019).

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