ABSTRACT
Trade Unionism in the printing industry has a long history. The largest Union in the printing industry is the National Union of Printing, Bookbinding, and Paper Workers, which organises, in addition to printers’ warehousemen and packers, papermakers and bookbinders, the staffs of publishers and wholesale newsagents. The Society of Women employed in the Bookbinding and Printing Trades is the only separate women’s Union in the industry. The Printers’ Medical Aid Association provides surgical, dental, and optical treatment with specialist advice, while the Printers’ Pension Corporation helps to bring comfort in old age and also attends to the maintenance and education of orphans. Towards the close of the last century it became apparent that the printing Unions needed some connecting link to ensure satisfactory progress. In 1890 the craft Unions formed the Printing and Kindred Trades Federation, welcoming into their ranks a few years later the comparatively newly formed semi-skilled Unions.
