Ceramics unions - Ceramic and Allied Trades Union (CATU)
A brief history
1906 - National Amalgamated Society of Male and Female Pottery Workers formed. Merged with several pottery unions.
1908 - Associated Stoneware Throwers, Bristol Stone Potters Society and Operative Pottery Engravers joined.
1919 - changed name to National Society of Pottery Workers.
1921 - Packers' Society and United Ovenmen's Society joined
1970 - changed name to Ceramic and Allied Trades Union (CATU).
2006 - changed name to Unity
Unity still exists today, click here to visit their website.
Ceramics' union archives in our collection
Ceramic and Allied Trades Union (TU/CERAMIC)
- Minutes of the National Executive Council, annual delegation and committees
- Finances - cash and payment books
- Newspaper cutting books
- Membership returns
- Wage agreements and price lists
- Other papers including correspondence, legal cases and World War Two and the pottery industry
- Files of papers relating to difference trade and occupational groups in the ceramics industry, including cup handlers, saggar makers, stoneware, flat pressers and decorators.
Ceramic companies referred to in the Ceramic and Allied Trades Union Collection (PDF, 44kb)
Sources about ceramics' unions in the Library
Frank Burchill and Richard Ross and Ceramic and Allied Trades Union, A history of the potters' union, Ceramics and Allied Trades Union (Hanley) 1977
W. H. Warburton, The history of trade union organisation in the North Staffordshire Potteries, Allen and Unwin (London) 1931