Open Research Online The Open University’s repository of research publications and other research outputs The Railway Clerks’ Association, 1919-1939 Thesis How to cite: McMahon, Anthony (1993). The Railway Clerks’ Association, 1919-1939. PhD thesis The Open University. For guidance on citations see FAQs. c 1992 Anthony McMahon https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Version: Version of Record Link(s) to article on publisher’s website: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21954/ou.ro.00010181 Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online’s data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. oro.open.ac.uk ANTHONY MCMAHON, B.A. (HONS, ) THE RAILWAY CLERKS’ ASSOCIATION, 1919-1939 Submitted for the degree of Ph. D in History, Open University October 1992 - 1 ProQuest Number: C347624 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest C347624 Published by ProQuest LLO (2019). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLO. ProQuest LLO. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.Q. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 The Railway Clerks' Association 1919 - 1939 Abstract This thesis analyses the history of the Railway Clerks' Association between 1919 and 1939. At the beginning of this period the Association was the largest and strongest white-collar trade union in the country; in 1920 it had recruited nearly 90 per cent of the railway white-collar work-force. Although the membership numbers declined after 1920 they soon stabilized at 50 to 60 per cent of its potential membership which was significantly greater than the overall density of trade union membership amongst the male labour force between 1921-1939. At the beginning of the period, in 1919, the Association obtained negotiating recognition from the railway companies. Even so, it continued to use parliamentary methods to influence its members' employers and to sponsor its members as parliamentary candidates: at first to gain parliamentary influence to further its own aims, later to help with the Labour Party's long-term aims. Its best success in this field was in 1929, v^en eight members of the Association were elected. It called its members out on strike in 1926 - the only white-collar trade union to do this. The response from its membership was not overwhelming, but the importance of this gesture is that it happened and there was a visible response. After commenting on theories concerning white collar trade unions, the working conditions of railway clerks and the organisation of the Association, the thesis discusses, within the framework of Michels' theory of organisations, selected aspects of the Association's work: wage negotiations, including the negotiations that secured recognition; parliamentary and electoral work; the Association's efforts to persuade - 1 of 2 - the railway companies to provide better pension funds; its experiences during the General Strike; and how it dealt with internal«dissension. The thesis concludes with an assessment of the Association as an example of a white-collar trade union and the level of organization and experience it had achieved by 1939, in relation to the challenge of war and its aftermath that the Association was to face. - 2 of 2 — CONTENTS Page SELECT LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND EXPLANATIONS LIST OF APPENDIXES LIST OF TABLES INTRODUCTION Chapter 1.... Working Conditions and Negotiating Machinery; the background. 28 Chapter 2....Wage Negotiations 1919 - 1939 39 Chapter 3.... Parliamentary and Electoral Affairs 118 Chapter 4....Pension Funds 144 Chapter 5....The General Strike and its Aftermath 193 Chapter 6....How the Union dealt with Dissension 250 CONCLUSION 277 NOTES 287 APPENDIXES - 2 - SELECT LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND EXPLANATIONS ASLEF The Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firmen. ASRS The Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants. (The main precursor of the NUR). ' Association* In the text of the thesis the RCA is normally referred to as the "Association*. BL or BM Reference for material held at the British Library. Cd. or Cmd. Parliamentary paper. CLC. Central Labour College. Conciliation A railway term for workers who Workers acquired limited negotiating rights in 1907. The grades of workers excluded were clerical and supervisory. CWB an NWB Central Wages Board and National Wages Board. The two major tribunals set up as a result of the 1921 Railways Act. Tribunals wfith the same names and much the same functions wfere in existence for the conciliation staff from 1920, In 1935, these tribunals wfere superseded when new negotiating procedures were agreed between the railway trade unions and the railway companies - RSNC and RSNT. EC Executive Committee; usually the Association's Executive Committee. GWR Great Western Railway Company (the greater part of this company was known by this name before 1921, but it was also one of the four large companies created as a result of the 1921 Railways Act). ILO International Labour Organisation. ITF International Transport Workers' Federation. LGOC London General Omnibus Company, (part of the T. 0. T. ). L. & Y. Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company (a pre-grouping company), - 3 - LMS. London Midland and Scottish Railway Company. (One of the four railway companies created as a result of the 1921 Railways Act). LNER London and North-Eastern Railway Company. (Another of the four railway companies created as a result of the 1921 Railways Act). LNWR London and North-Western Railway Company (a pre-grouping company). LPTB London Passenger Transport Board. (The body created in 1933 when the intra-urban passenger transport of London was nationalised. ) MSS. 55 and MSS. 55B These are references to the archives of the Association held at the Modern Record Centre at Warwick University. NALGO National Association of Local Government Officers, later Nationalised and Local Government Officers Association. NASMY National Association of Station Masters and Yardmasters, previously known as NESMA i.e. North Eastern Station Masters Association. NCLC Nation Council of Labour Colleges. NER North Eastern Railway Company (a pre- -grouping company). NUR National Union of Railwayman. (In the 1990's, known as the RMT). ORT & E Fund Omnibus, Railway and Equipment Companies Superannuation Fund ( a T. 0. T. fund) PRO Public Record Office. RCA Railway Clerks' Association, the name the Association was known by from 1898 to 1951, For the first year of its existence(1897) it was called: the National Association of General Railway Clerks. RCH Railway Clearing House. 4 - REC Railway Executive Committee. The name of the committee of railway managers which administered the railway industry during both world wars RPI Retail Price Index. RSNC & RSNT These bodies, the Railway Staff National Council, and the Railway Staff National Tribunal, replaced the CWB and the NWB in the negotiating procedures which were agreed in 1935. T. & G. Transport and General Workers Union. T, 0. T. Trams, Omnibuses and Tubes - the popular name given to the London Traffic Combine, a group of companies which ran intra-urban transport prior to 1933. TWF Transport Workers' Federation. Unappointed clerks Railway clerks not awarded permanent status. They suffered from a number of disadvantages such as not being in the pension fund. Their numbers declined over the period, from 656 in 1927 to 411 in 1938. The Association constantly pressed for their status to be regularised WEA Workers' Educational Association. WETUC Workers' Educational Trade Union Committee. - 5 - LIST OF APPENDICES Page APPENDIX I Numbers of Railway clerical and administrative staff broken down by grade, and pay, also total Railway employment and cost of living index: 1920 - 1938. APPENDIX II Wage rate and cost of living indexes: 1918 - 1940. APPENDIX III Numbers of members, branches, amount of funds, and average amount of funds per member. APPENDIX IV Comparative data on Clerical Workers' pay in 1910. APPENDIX V The negotiating machinery imposed under the 1921 Railway Act. APPENDIX VI Elections at which members stood 1918 - 1936. 3 3 1 APPENDIX VII Discussion of data on Railwayman 3 ^ $ on strike in May, 1926. < - 6 - LIST OF TABLES Page. TABLE 1, Association Branch membership statistics: 1903 - 1914. 20 TABLE 2. Dates of Pay Settlements for smaller groups in 1920. 55 TABLE 3. Total Railway Employment: 1930 - 1935. 303 TABLE 4. Total Net Revenue for the four main-line Railway Companies 1929 - 1938. 304 TABLE 5. Parliamentary Careers of Association Members 1923 - 1935. 139 TABLE 6. Dividends paid by the four main-line railway companies: 1923 - 1938. 179 TABLE 7. Net Revenue divided by gross revenue for the four main-line railway companies 1923 - 1938. 180 TABLE 8. 'Ex Gratia' pension suggested for LMS unappointed clerks in 1923. 32.5 - 7 - Introduction This thesis deals with the history of the Railway Clerks' Association from 1919 to 1939, henceforward referred to as the'Associâtion! It was, and is, a 'white-collar' trade union, now the Transport Salaried Staffs Association. The period is that of the two peacetime decades between the two World Wars, but its boundaries have not been arbitrarily chosen. They were landmarks in the Association's history, in that it achieved employers' recognition as a negotiating body in 1919 and faced new challenges brought by the second World War in 1939. The Association's inter-war history is presented in terms of five topics that were its major preoccupations: wage negotiations; parliamentary and electoral activity; the movement to improve pension schemes; the Association's experience of the General Strike; and its response to internal dissension.