The recruiting of men for the army was in the early stages of the war left entirely to the War Office. But haphazard recruitment led to the crippling of essential industries by the withdrawal of skilled men in considerable numbers, and to industrial unrest. It was therefore found advisable to bring trade unions into consulta tion on questions of recruiting.
Similarly, when the Government imposed its control over cer tain industries, the trade unions primarily concerned played an active part. The cotton and wool textile controls may be taken as an illustration. The cotton control board (set up in 1917) de termined the amount of machinery which was to be run upon other than Government orders, and imposed a levy upon concerns working full time to pay out of work benefit to workers employed by firms suffering from the operation of the raw cotton order (which prohibited the purchase of cotton except under licence) and the control board. The wool control board, also instituted in 1917, consisted of eleven representatives of the trade unions, the employers and the War Office contracts department.
After the World War, these various forms of organisation came to an end, but they had given a new standing to the trade union movement. Since 1918 the chief administrative activities of the trade unions have been in connection with health insurance, un employment insurance and trade boards.
The Consolidation of Trade Unions.—The movement towards consolidation of trade union forces which has been a marked feature in recent years was partly the outcome of the theoretical teaching of Syndicalism and Guild Socialism, but it was largely due to experience and the hard facts of economic life.
Federations have changed from loose alliances to negotiating bodies acting on behalf of the constituent unions. This develop ment is seen in the case of the Engineering and Shipbuilding Trades Federation and the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, though the latter under the Coal Agreement of 1926 is no longer a negotiating body. In Nov. 1910, on the initiative of the Dockers' Union, the National Transport Workers' Federation was formed comprising practically all the unions catering for workers em ployed in waterside transport, including seamen, dockers and carters. This Federation, however, has since gone out of
The Triple Alliance.—The Triple Industrial Alliance which was formed in 1914 was, in effect, a federation consisting of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, the Transport Workers' Federation and the National Union of Railwaymen ; it was thus composed of two bodies which themselves were federations and one large industrial union. The associated bodies were the unions concerned in the key industries of coal and transport, and the formation of the alliance created some consternation. But the only occasion when the Triple Alliance decided to embark upon industrial action was during the coal stoppage of 1921, when the Alliance issued notices calling a strike in support of the miners. The notices, however, were postponed and then withdrawn on April 14 (Black Friday). The result was to destroy the Alliance, but the association of railway, transport and mining unions con tinued, as they formed one of the "groups" constituted by the general council of the Trades Union congress. In 1925 attempts were made, largely on the initiative of the Miners' Federation, to establish a new alliance on a broader basis than the Triple Alliance; but, as.membership of the new alliance involved in some cases an alteration of the rules of certain unions, and as the impli cations of the proposed association needed careful consideration, the completion of the alliance hung fire, and was abandoned.
Textile Trades.—In June, 1916, the National Association of Unions in the Textile Trade was established. Of the 36 unions of which the association is composed, 20 represent wool textile work ers. The association, however, includes, besides workers engaged in manufacturing and finishing processes, those engaged in the textile machinery trade, and the skilled workers engaged in the maintenance of plant. The association appoints the workers' representatives on the joint industrial council of the wool textile industry. But the association also exists to promote trade union amalgamation in the industry, and to secure co-ordination in the case of disputes.