Editing Ceramic and Allied Trades Union

{{redirect-distinguish|Unity (trade union)|Unison (trade union)}}
{{Infobox union|
|name         = Ceramic and Allied Trades Union
|location_country = [[United Kingdom]]
|affiliation  = [[Trades Union Congress|TUC]], [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unionstogether.org.uk/pages/member_unions |title=TULO's member unions &#124; Unions Together |access-date=March 31, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120311211534/http://www.unionstogether.org.uk/pages/member_unions |archive-date=March 11, 2012 }}</ref>
|members      = {{plainlist|
*40,000 (1919)
*11,824 (1946)<ref>[[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]], ''Report of the Forty-Fifth Annual Conference of the Labour Party'', p.77</ref>
*3,906 (2013)<ref>[https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/unity-annual-returns Unity: annual returns.] UK Certification Officer.</ref>}}
|image        = File:CATU logo.png
|founded      = 1906
|dissolved    = 16 April 2015
|merged       = [[GMB (trade union)|GMB]]
|publication  = ''The Potter''
|headquarters = Hillcrest House, Garth Street, [[Stoke-on-Trent]]
|key_people   = 
|website      = {{URL|http://www.unitytheunion.org.uk/}}
|footnotes    = 
}}
The '''Ceramic and Allied Trades Union''' ('''CATU''') was a [[trade union]] representing pottery workers in the United Kingdom.

==Predecessors==
The first significant union in the pottery trades was founded in 1827 as the '''National Union of Operative Potters''', affiliated to the [[National Association for the Protection of Labour]].  Based in [[the Potteries]], it was the first union to actively recruit members from outside the area, and focused its efforts on building its strength, and opposing the worst [[truck shop]]s.<ref>John Thomas, ''The Rise of the Staffordshire Potteries'', p.191</ref>  While the union collapsed in 1837, a loose federation named the '''United Branches of Operative Potters''', which had been founded by some of its members three years before, ensured trade unionism survived in the industry.<ref>John Thomas, ''The Rise of the Staffordshire Potteries'', p.197</ref>

The United Branches initially thrived, and in 1845 it was a major shareholder in the [[National Association of United Trades for the Employment of Labour]], but this led to disputes which in 1846 led the union to collapse.  Secretary William Evans formed the controversial Potters Emigration Society, taking up fears around mechanisation to encourage potters to move to [[Pottersville, Wisconsin]], although that scheme also foundered by 1848.<ref>Martin Crawford, "Back to the Future? The Potters' Emigration Society and the Historians", ''Labour History Review'', vo.76 no.2, p.81</ref><ref name="warburton">{{cite book |last1=Warburton |first1=W. H. |title=The History of Trade Union Organisation in the North Staffordshire Potteries |date=1931 |publisher=George Allen & Unwin |location=London |pages=123&ndash;223}}</ref>

From the 1840s until the 1900s, workers in the industry, if unionised at all, were part of very small, sectional unions.  Only the United Overmen's Society, with 700 members in 1866, and the Hollow-ware Pressers' Society, which peaked at 1,400 members in 1873, were of any size.<ref name="warburton" />

==History==
In 1906, the Amalgamated Society of Hollow-ware Pressers merged with the China Potters' Federation and the Printers' and Transferrers' Society, forming the '''National Amalgamated Society of Male and Female Pottery Workers'''.  This was joined by the National Amalgamated Operative White Potters of Scotland later in the year, the China Furniture and Electrical Appliance Throwers' and Turners' Society in 1907, and the Society of Operative Pottery Engravers, the Associated Stoneware Throwers, and the Bristol Stoneware Society in 1908.  It opened branches in many other towns across the country, including one in London 1907.<ref name="warburton" />  The union also became prominent in the [[International Federation of Pottery Workers]].<ref name="burchill">{{cite book |last1=Burchill |first1=Frank |last2=Ross |first2=Richard |title=A History of the Potters' Union |date=1977 |publisher=Ceramic and Allied Trades Union |location=Hanley}}</ref>

In 1919, the United Ovenmen's Society and the Packers' Association joined the union, which renamed itself as the '''National Society of Pottery Workers''', with 40,000 members.<ref name="warburton" />  This membership fell during the 1920s and much of the 1930s, as the [[Great Depression]] hit, and the union struggled to increase the low wages paid in the industry.  However, from 1933 the union was able to more than cover its costs, and in 1937 membership more than doubled, to 24,323.  The British Pottery Manufacturers' Association began encouraging workers to join the union, hoping to prevent low-end manufacturers from undercutting its members.<ref name="burchill" />

After World War II, the workforce in the British pottery industry declined, but the union increased membership density, and by 1975, 75.3% of pottery workers in the UK held membership of the union.  During the 1950s, the union engaged with compulsory arbitration, but ended this in 1960, feeling it achieved little.  In 1965, the union threatened to strike in order to improve wages.<ref name="burchill" />

In 1970, the union became the '''Ceramic and Allied Trades Union''',<ref>Wolodymyr Maksymiw et al, ''The British Trade Union Directory'' (1990), p.92</ref> and it announced that it would recruit workers from all areas of the pottery industry, other than managers - this included areas such as clerical staff, electricians and maintenance workers, but these areas were already covered by other unions, and following various disputes, it largely withdrew from them.  In 1975, the union signed a [[closed shop]] agreement with the British Pottery Manufacturers' Federation, although workers who did not wish to join could pay the equivalent amount to a charity.  The agreement also established an approach to calculating wage increases, and gave workers two extra days holiday each year.  This achieved most of the union's long-term aims.<ref name="burchill" />

Employment in the pottery industry continued to decline, and by 2006, the union's membership was down to 7,239.  In the hope of recruiting workers in other industries, it changed its name to '''Unity'''.<ref name="smethurst">{{cite book |first1=John B. |last1=Smethurst |first2=Peter |last2=Carter |title=Historical Directory of Trade Unions |volume=6 |isbn=9780754666837 |lccn=80-151653 |date=June 2009 |publisher=Ashgate Publishing |location=Farnham |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/historicaldirect0004mars }}</ref>  In 2015, the union merged into the [[GMB (trade union)|GMB]].<ref>[[GMB (trade union)|GMB]], "[http://www.gmb.org.uk/newsroom/unity-votes-to-merge-with-GMB Unity Votes To Merge With GMB] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160821190804/http://www.gmb.org.uk/newsroom/unity-votes-to-merge-with-GMB |date=2016-08-21 }}", 12 January 2015</ref>

==Election results==
The union sponsored its general secretary as a [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] candidate in several Parliamentary elections.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Parker |first1=James |title=Trade unions and the political culture of the Labour Party, 1931-1940 |date=2017 |publisher=University of Exeter |location=Exeter |page=125 |url=https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bitstream/handle/10871/32856/ParkerJ.pdf}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Election !! Constituency !! Candidate !! Votes !! Percentage !! Position
|-
| [[1924 UK general election|1924 general election]] || [[Hanley (UK Parliament constituency)|Hanley]] || {{sortname|Samuel|Clowes|Samuel Clowes (Labour politician)}} || 13,527 || 53.0 || 1
|-
| [[1928 Hanley by-election|1928 by-election]] || [[Hanley (UK Parliament constituency)|Hanley]] || {{sortname|Arthur|Hollins|Arthur Hollins (politician)}} || 15,136 || 60.2 || 1
|-
| [[1929 UK general election|1929 general election]] || [[Hanley (UK Parliament constituency)|Hanley]] || {{sortname|Arthur|Hollins|Arthur Hollins (politician)}} || 20,785 || 62.1 || 1
|-
| [[1931 UK general election|1931 general election]] || [[Hanley (UK Parliament constituency)|Hanley]] || {{sortname|Arthur|Hollins|Arthur Hollins (politician)}} || 15,245 || 44.3 || 2
|-
| [[1935 UK general election|1935 general election]] || [[Hanley (UK Parliament constituency)|Hanley]] || {{sortname|Arthur|Hollins|Arthur Hollins (politician)}} || 17,211 || 52.0 || 1
|}

==Leadership==
===General Secretaries===
:1906: Joseph Lovatt
:1918: [[Samuel Clowes (Labour politician)|Samuel Clowes]]
:1928: [[Arthur Hollins (politician)|Arthur Hollins]]
:1947: [[Harold Hewitt (trade unionist)|Harold Hewitt]]
:1964: Alf Dulson
:1975: [[Les Sillitoe]]
:1980: Alf Clowes
:1996: Geoff Bagnall
:2012: Harry Hockaday

===Assistant General Secretaries===
:1947: Albert Goodwin
:1955: Steve Hobson
:1966: [[Les Sillitoe]]
:1975: Alf Clowes
:1980: Harold Hammersley
: Garry Oakes

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{official site|http://www.unitytheunion.org.uk/}}

{{Trades Union Congress}}
{{Stoke-on-Trent}}
{{Portal|Organised labour}}

[[Category:Ceramic and Allied Trades Union| ]]
[[Category:1906 establishments in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:2015 disestablishments in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Politics of Stoke-on-Trent]]
[[Category:Ceramics and pottery trade unions]]
[[Category:Trade unions established in 1906]]
[[Category:Trade unions disestablished in 2015]]
[[Category:GMB (trade union) amalgamations]]
[[Category:Trade unions based in Staffordshire]]