Catalogue description Ceramic and Allied Trades Union (CATU)

The collection contains minutes of the National Executive Council, annual delegation meetings and other committees. There are volumes of payments books, membership returns, agreements and prices lists and a series of newspaper cuttings books. Other papers include files on negotiations with companies, lodges, apprenticeships, World War Two and the pottery industry and legal cases. There is a series of files relating to trades and occupational groupings in the pottery industry that contain papers on practices, agreements and disputes.

Series 1: Minutes books
Series 2: Finances
Series 3: Newspaper cutting books
Series 4: Membership returns
Series 5: Agreements and price lists
Series 6: Other papers
Series 7: Trade and occupational grouping files

Open for consultation

The Ceramic and Allied Trades Union (CATU) can trace its origin from the formation of the National Amalgamated Society of Male and Female Pottery Workers (NASMFPW) in 1906. This changed its name to the National Society of Pottery Workers (NSPW) in 1917. Previously there had been many small, disparate and mainly craft-based unions which did not carry much punch and were sometimes in conflict with each other. The process of amalgamation was largely completed when the union representing the ovenmen joined in 1920. The National Society of Pottery Workers became 'CATU' in 1970, and has recently become part of Unity.