The Workers' Union was a trade union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

 in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

.

Founded in 1898, in 1919 the Workers' Union joined the National Amalgamated Workers Union, a loose confederation with the Municipal Employees Association and the National Amalgamated Union of Labour

National Amalgamated Union of Labour

The National Amalgamated Union of Labour was a general union in the United Kingdom.The trade union was founded in 1888 as the Tyneside and District Labourers Union, and it participated in the National Labour Federation...

, but this dissolved in 1922.

Membership of the union collapsed during the 1920s, with job losses due to the depression, the General Strike of 1926 and disputes over payments to members of the executive committee. In 1929, it merged into the Transport and General Workers' Union

Transport and General Workers' Union

The Transport and General Workers' Union, also known as the TGWU and the T&G, was one of the largest general trade unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland - where it was known as the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union - with 900,000 members...

 (TGWU), with about 100,000 members remaining to transfer. This enabled the TGWU, for the first time, to gain significant numbers of members outside of the docks and transport industries.

General Secretaries

1898: Tom Chambers

Tom Chambers (trade unionist)

Tom Chambers was a British trade unionist. His son was Fielding Reginald West, Labour MP for Kensington and Hammersmith....

1900: Charles Duncan

Charles Duncan (politician)

Charles Duncan was a British Labour Party politician.Born in Middlesbrough, Duncan was the son of a ship's pilot. He was apprenticed to the engineering industry, and Elswick Ordnance Factory, Newcastle upon Tyne...

See also

• List of trade unions
• Transport and General Workers' Union
  Transport and General Workers' Union
  The Transport and General Workers' Union, also known as the TGWU and the T&G, was one of the largest general trade unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland - where it was known as the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union - with 900,000 members...
  
  
• TGWU amalgamations