Catalogue description Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF), Sheffield Branch

This record is held by Sheffield City Archives

Details of ASLEF
Reference: ASLEF
Title: Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF), Sheffield Branch
Description:

Branch meeting minutes, payments, 1880 - 1961 (ASLEF/1)

Branch contribution ledgers, 1915 - 1959 (ASLEF/2)

Check stewards' ledgers, 1919 - 1928 (ASLEF/3)

Quarterly returns of contributions to head office, 1914 - 1958 (ASLEF/4)

London and North Eastern Railway (L.N.E.R.) sectional council number. 2 Minutes, 1924 - 1950 (ASLEF/5)

Neepsend Locomotive depot minutes May, 1922 - 1941 (ASLEF/6)

Date: 1880 - 1963
Arrangement:

The original order of the collection has been maintained and arranged into six series which reflect the major activities of the creator over the years.

Held by: Sheffield City Archives, not available at The National Archives
Language: English.
Creator:

Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF), Sheffield Branch

Physical description: 63 items
Access conditions:

Open

Immediate source of acquisition:

The Sheffield Trades and Labour Council 1959, and the majority of the material deposited by ASLEF in 1964.

Subjects:
  • Trade union rights
  • Railway transport
  • Railway workers
  • Railway organizations
  • Railway Act 1921 c55
  • Railway management
  • Railway Regulation Act 1840 c97
  • Railway Employment (Prevention of Accidents) Act 1900 c27
  • Railway Companies Act 1867 c127
  • Trade union members
  • Locomotive engineers
  • Locomotive firemen
  • General Strike (1926)
  • General Strike, 1926
  • Rail strike (1911)
  • Trade associations
  • Labour disputes
  • Labour unions
  • Labour organizations
  • Labour legislation
  • Strikes (labour)
  • Labour law
  • Labour relations
  • Labour/management relations
  • Labour and employment
  • Transport legislation
  • First World War (1914-1918)
  • Second World War (1939-1945)
  • Trade unions
Administrative / biographical background:

On 7 Feb 1880 William Ullyott of Leeds and 55 colleagues formed the first registered lodge of the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF) in Sheffield. The founding delegate conference of the new Society was held in the Falstaff Hotel, Market Place, Manchester on 3 Jan 1881. It was set up as craft union, one in which workers were organised according to the particular craft or trade in which they worked. It contrasted with industrial unionism, in which all workers in the same industry were organised into the same union, regardless of differences in skills.


Within a year, ASLEF had established a central executive - based for convenience on the Leeds branch - and had registered under the Trade Union Acts, its head office being the Commercial Inn, Sweet Street, Holbeck, Leeds. The first general secretary was Joseph Brooke. By 1884, membership exceeded 1,000.


In the course of the next two decades, the union’s membership grew from hundreds to thousands. ASLEF held its first strike on the Midland Railways in 1887. Its first monthly magazine was published in 1888.


By 1904, when the union had 12,000 members, train drivers and firemen had mostly achieved a ten-hour day everywhere except Scotland and Ireland, where shifts of 12 hours remained common. ASLEF took part in many strikes, including the national rail strike of 1911, the 1919 strike to help the National Union of Railwaymen win standardised pay, 1924 strike against the new large regional railway companies, the 1926 General Strike, and the 1955 strike against British Railways regarding a pay dispute.


ASLEF is still active, being Britain's trade union for train drivers. At the time of writing (Jan 2018) it has over 20,000 members who are employed in the train operating companies, the freight companies, London Underground and some Light Rapid Transport. Its members belong to one of 180 branches that are spread throughout the UK.


Administrative history based on the History of ASLEF taken from the ASLEF website http://www.aslef.org.uk/history.html [accessed 13 Jun 2017].

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