Associated Iron and Steel Workers of Great Britain
Founding Member ISTC
National Amalgamated Association of Ironworkers
Amalgamated Malleable Iron Workers Association
As the earliest workers organisation in the Iron and Steel trades, few documents survive. But it is likely that an organisation was formed in 1862 called the Amalgamated Malleable Ironworkers Association and based in Darlington. However, as this was prior to the Charter of Trade Union Rights in the Acts of 1871 and 1876, the legality and public standing of the organisation is not known.
The Association pushed for the creation of a Board of Arbitration and Conciliation for the manufactured iron trade of the North of England, and it seems to have sparked the change of name to the National Amalgamated Association of Ironworkers (NAAI), although the board was not establilshed until 1897.
John Kane, the driving force of this organisation was defeated as a Independent Labour candidate for Middlesbrough in 1874. Following John Kane’s death in 1876, the Association held a conference, inviting representatives from across the UK, (though Monmouthshire and South Wales were not represented), and the Associated Iron and Steel Workers of Great Britain was formed, though the NAAI was not dissolved until 1891 (It ceased oferring labour representation becoming in effect a friendly society).
Following increasingly frequent disputes betweenthe unions in the industry, (particular reference should be made to Harwarden Bridge) saw the founding of the Iron and Steel Trades Federation. This did not go far enough and the Associated iron and Steel Workers of Great Britain agreed to found the ISTC in 1917, dissolving their organisation at the end of 1918.