SHOP STEWARDS. Prior to 1914, shop stewards in Great Britain were confined to certain of the skilled trade unions. The duties of the shop steward were to inspect trade union contri bution cards at regular intervals, to recruit new members for the union, to keep a watch on possible encroachments in the trade of other sections of labour, and to report regularly to the trade union branch or district organisation which he represented on matters arising in the workshop demanding official attention. In some cases he was also responsible for representing grievances of mem bers of his union in the workshop to the management. His powers were, therefore restricted. The conditions of wartime led to the assumption of new functions by shop stewards. The official trade union organisations were parties to the industrial truce agreed upon at the beginning of the war, and in any event, their machinery was too cumbrous to deal with the Questions which arose from day to day in almost every munitions factory.
During the war, therefore, shop stewards became negotiators and superseded in a large degree in factories and workshops en gaged on war production, the ordinary official machinery of trade union negotiation. At the end of the war, the restoration of more normal conditions broke the power of the shop stewards. They have, however, in many unions now become a normal part of Trade Union organisation. Shop stewards have been appointed in factories and workshops in a variety of industries where they did not exist prior to the war. In addition to carrying out their well established duties, they are in some industries empowered to negotiate on minor matters, but their negotiating powers are derived from the unions and are not exercised independently of the unions as was so frequently the case during the war. (See TRADE UNIONS.)