ABSTRACT
The main body of published work has tended to rely upon what have become standard accounts and interpretations, repeating both detail and assertion from a few sources and thus creating limited, if any, space for new interpretation or analysis. It is also the case that major work on trade union history has neglected these dimensions and thus created the impression of their marginal significance. The long history of discrimination and racism directed against the Irish might have been thought to have contributed to trade union hostility. A more detailed consideration of trade union responses to these later years requires some basic narrative of post-1945 immigration. From a trade union perspective, this latest phase of immigration seemed initially unproblematic. The Transport and General Workers’ Union delegates to the Midlands Federation of Trades Councils proposed a resolution in September 1955, calling for the control of immigration.
