The history of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, 1871-1913

Trade Unionism among British railwaymen developed in the course of the second wave of trade union growth which occurred during the prosperous years towards the end of the third quarter of the Nineteenth Century. Until then self-organisation among railwaymen had been hampered by certain features of the industry in its period of expansion. An exceptionally authoritarian tradition of management, a high proportion of young and unsettled workers, the policy of recruiting new entrants from the ranks of agricultural labourers, and a tendency among different grades of railwaymen to keep aloof from one another - these factors hindered the growth of trade unionism, The Locomotive grade possessed a scarcity value which made its members more susceptible to organisation. But they also cultivated an attitude of exclusiveness. The history of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants is largely a story of a struggle to maintain a trade union in spite of these handicaps. Continued in thesis ...