ABSTRACT
The head convener of shop stewards in the big establishments became in many cases a very important person in the direction of war-time Trade Union policy. Before the war there was in any trade only one kind of shop steward, a minor workshop agent of the Trade Union or its District Committee. During the war years the activities of the various District Committees in promoting and authorizing the appointment of shop stewards very greatly increased, and Unions which had hitherto appointed no official stewards rapidly improvised some sort of workshop organization. The relations between the stewards of the skilled workers and those of the less skilled differed widely from district to district and often from shop to shop. While the number of stewards was thus rapidly increasing throughout practically the whole range of the munitions industries, their position and duties were also being rapidly transformed.
