Iron and Steel Trades Confederation

The ISTC's roots reach right back to the early days of the world's first industrial revolution

A Steel Worker

ISTC – Iron and Steel Trades Confederation

Founding Member of Community Union 2004

British Iron and Steel and Kindred Trades Association (BISAKTA)

The Iron and Steel Trades Confederation was organised in response to demarcation disputes (Hawarden Bridge) between members of the Iron and Steel Trades Federation and difficulties in structural orgaising under the Trade Union Act of 1871. The law prevented union mergers without super majorities of all members voting in favour. To avoid this hurdle, the ISTC was organised as a confederation to which all unions in the industry were invited to join, while also forming a new union, British Iron and Steel and Kindred Trades Association (BISAKTA).

Once the Confederation was organised, all unions save BISAKTA were to cease accepting new members and to encourage existing members to transfer to the new union. This complicated game of musical chairs was required in order to ensure that no member was transferred into an organisation that provided less than the full range of benefits and services than their original union.

The individual unions retained an existence within the Confederation until attrition saw their structures fully merged with BISAKTA. With the sole exception of the Amalgamated Society of Wire Drawers, who after affiliiating in 1920 chose to exit the confederation in 1924.

As a craft union, The National Union of Blastfurnacemen (NUB) chose not to affiliate to the industry-wide union ISTC. However the two formed a close working relationship , that was only strengthened following the entry into the sector of the generalist unions such as the TGWU & NUGMW.

The direct forerunner of the ISTC was the the ISTF, the Iron and Steel Trades Federation, which had been organised in 1912 in order to side step the logistical problems of amalgamation. The ISTF was wound up after John Hodge passed the Trade Union Amalgamation Act in 1917 and the ISTC was founded.

Formed in 1912, the ISTF comprised of the Associated Iron and Steel Workers of Great Britain, Amalgamated Iron and Steel Workers, Tin and Sheet Millmen’s Association, National Steel Workers and Labour League and the Dockers’ Union (Tinplate and Galvanising Section). The federation represnted 30,000 members and was headed by Mr Arthur Henderson.

The ISTC's roots reach right back to the early days of the world's first industrial revolution which was built on the coal and iron industries in the North of England, Scotland, and Wales. It was in the ore mines and iron foundries that large numbers of people working long, back-breaking hours came together to form the first trade unions and grasp some control of their working conditions and pay.

There were many mergers in the union's history. Five ballots in 1917 of the largest unions of British steel workers a few weeks before the Russian Revolution and during the First World War were crucial in the ISTC's growth.

The Iron and Steel trades Confederation was a resulting of a number of pressures. There had been growing ill will between the leadership of the smaller craft unions and the larger generalist Steel Smelters union, as well as the wage disparity of members, which had reached its peak during the Hawarden Bridge dispute (see below). World War I had also increased pressure to follow the minimg and railway unions in adopting a national organisation to cover the entire industry. Finally, the General Secretary of the Steel Smelters union had, as Minister of Labour in Lloyd George’s wartime cabinet, passed the Trade Union Amalgamation Act (1917) allowing for far easier amalgamations and mergers.

The ISTC was concieved as a confederation to which member unions affiliated, paying a premium for each member. To prevent continued demarcation disputes, upon affiliation, unions were to cease accepting new members, instead urging Iron and Steel workers to join the newly created British Iron, Steel and Kindred Trades Association (BISAKTA), also known as the central organisation. BISAKTA was to continue as the single union affiliated to the ISTC, the other unions, upon theit satisfaction would amalgamate with BISAKTA.

The Iron and Steel Trades Confederation (ISTC) was constituted on the 1st of January 1917 from the British Steel Smelters, Mill, Iron and Tinplate and Kindred Trades Association, The Associated Iron and Steel Workers of Great Britain and the National Steel Workers’ Association Engineering and Labour League.

The ISTC was later joined by the Amalgamated Association of Steel & Iron Workers of Great Britain in 1920 and the Tin and Sheet Millmens Association in 1921. The Wire Workers Union joined in 1922, but withdrew in 1924. The Wire Workers Union rejoined in 1991. In 1985 the National Union of Blast-furnace-men joined the ISTC.

As well as representing the great majority of employees involved in the steel industry, the ISTC welcomed members from the electronics industry, plastics and glass, the manufacture of kitchen furniture, carpet production, and call centres, especially in areas where the local community was built around major steel industry installations.

The ISTC also absorbed the Power Loom Carpet Weavers and Textile Worker’s Union (PLCWTWU) and the National League of the Blind and Disabled (NLBD) in 2000.

One of the benefits of the Confederation structure was that it allowed unions to generally avoid internal disputes. The National Union of Clerks had affiliated a section possibly as early as 1917, however the NUC parted ways with the Confederation following a dispute in 1934. This would not be the first time that the boundaries of the this industrial union would be challenged. In 1967 the introduction of general unions (TGWU &NUGMW) into downstream operations would cause frictions., as would relations with the Steel Industry Management Association (SIMA, later absorbed into Unite).

This extends to modern times with frequent challenges by Community to percieved poaching by Unite the Union in South Wales (2008/9).

When the British Steel Corporations sought to rationalise industrial relations in the 1970’s, this saw the adoption of representation apportioned amongst the unions proportionaly.

Unions that amalgamated into the ISTC and BISAKTA include: