ABSTRACT
The most spectacular change in trade union organization in this period was the formation of unions of semi-skilled men and women. The main field of recruitment at first, however, was not the casual, unskilled labourers, but the numerous assistants who worked in the pressrooms of the large firms, especially on the rotary machines used in newspaper printing. The objects of the union were ‘to obtain a minimum wage of 32s per week for bookbinders’ cutters, 30s per week for warehousemen and cutters, and 24s per week for warehouse assistants, and a minimum of time-and-a-quarter for overtime; to provide an out-of-work benefit fund; and to endeavour to reduce the hours of labour, and regulate the relations between workmen and employer’. The Original Society of Papermakers, founded in 1800, was a conservative and declining body clinging to the traditions of the handicraft days, and failing to adjust to the factory age.
