Scottish Commercial Motormen's Union

Scottish Commercial Motormen's Union
Founded	1898
Date dissolved	1971
Merged into	Transport and General Workers' Union
Members	12,000 (1912)
Journal	Highway [1]
Affiliation	TUC, STUC, Labour
Office location	308 Albert Drive, Glasgow
Country	United Kingdom

Last updated February 21, 2019

The Scottish Commercial Motormen's Union was a trade union in the United Kingdom. It merged with the Transport and General Workers' Union in 1971.

A trade union, also called a labour union or labor union (US), is an organization of workers who have come together to achieve many common goals, such as protecting the integrity of their trade, improving safety standards, and attaining better wages, benefits, and working conditions through the increased bargaining power wielded by the creation of a monopoly of the workers. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with employers. The most common purpose of these associations or unions is "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment". This may include the negotiation of wages, work rules, complaint procedures, rules governing hiring, firing and promotion of workers, benefits, workplace safety and policies.

The United Kingdom, officially the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland but more commonly known as the UK or Britain, is a sovereign country lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state‍—‌the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland. With an area of 242,500 square kilometres (93,600 sq mi), the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world. It is also the 22nd-most populous country, with an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017.

The Transport and General Workers' Union 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 (ATGWU) to differentiate itself from the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union - with 900,000 members. It was founded in 1922, and its first general secretary was Ernest Bevin.

History

The union was founded in 1898 as the Scottish Carters' Association.^[2] Hugh Lyon was appointed as its organiser in 1901, and was elected as general secretary the following year,^[3] at which point the union was heavily indebted and had only 300 members.^[4] He spent his first five months supporting a strike in Falkirk; during this time, the central office closed down and the union nearly shut down, but the strike was so successful that the union's executive decided to retain Lyon.^[3]

Hugh Lyon was a Scottish trade union leader.

Falkirk is a large town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, 23.3 miles (37.5 km) north-west of Edinburgh and 20.5 miles (33.0 km) north-east of Glasgow.

Lyon gained recognition for the union from Glasgow Town Council in 1904, and several strikes were won early in the 1910s, giving it membership across the nation, peaking at around 12,000 in 1912. In 1908, it was renamed as the Scottish Horse and Motormen's Association, in order to assist with the recruitment of drivers of motor vans. However, Lyon incorrectly believed that motor vehicles were a passing craze, and that the union should focus on recruiting carters. This led to a decline in membership during the 1920s and 1930s, worsened by Lyon's refusal to allow the union to join the Transport Workers' Federation, which led to a large number of demarcation disputes. Finally, in 1936, the union's executive lost patience and dismissed him.^[3]

Election results

The union sponsored a Labour Party candidate in the 1970 UK general election:^[5]

The Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom which has been described as an alliance of social democrats, democratic socialists and trade unionists. The party's platform emphasises greater state intervention, social justice and strengthening workers' rights. Labour is a full member of the Party of European Socialists and Progressive Alliance, and holds observer status in the Socialist International. As of 2017, the party was considered the "largest party in Western Europe" in terms of party membership, with more than half a million members.

Constituency	Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Position
Moray and Nairn	Peter Talbot	6,452	22.8	3

General Secretaries

1898: John Sampson

1902: Hugh Lyon

1929: Robert Taylor

1944: John Brannigan

1959: Alex Kitson

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References

↑ Eaton, Jack; Gill, Colin (1981). The Trade Union Directory. London: Pluto Press. p. 54. ISBN 0861043502.
↑ John B. Smethurst and Peter Carter, Historical directory of trade unions, Vol. 6, p.180
1 2 3 Knox, William (1984). Scottish Labour Leaders 1918-1939. Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing Company. pp. 164–168. ISBN 0906391407.
↑ "Obituary: Mr Hugh Lyon", Glasgow Herald , 20 June 1940, p.3
↑ Labour Party, Report of the Sixty-Ninth Annual Conference of the Labour Party, pp.289-312