ABSTRACT
The numerical disparity between two industries was striking. In 1900 there were 167,666 cotton trade unionists compared with 8,797 union members in wool textiles. Although the early twentieth century saw a significant increase in wool textile unionisation with a three-fold increase between 1901 and 1911, the respective totals of 274,538 members in the cotton industry and 23,102 in wool textiles reflected a wide disparity. The development of a mechanised industry, particularly when the bastions of male hand labour, hand combing and weaving, were threatened, was opposed by local labour leaders. The slow growth of trade unions in the nineteenth century was a clear reflection of the weak and divided nature of the labour force. Up to the 1870s, trade unionism, if indeed it can be referred to as such, was confined to the skilled and supervisory workers. Significantly the one area of the trade which saw the development of employer co-operation also saw the greatest amount of unionisation.
