3.4) The Usdaw Family Tree
How Usdaw developed into the Union it is today.
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Strenuous efforts were made in the 1880s to form a trade union organisation for shop assistants. Local associations sprang up in towns and cities throughout Britain yet most only survived a few months.
The survivors formed the NUSA in 1891. However, one organisation, the United Shop Assistants' Union (USAU), that was founded in 1889, did remain independent.
In 1893 the NUSA added 'Warehousemen and Clerks' to its title in order to organise those workers. It remained the NUSAW&C until 1898 when it merged with the USAU and became the NAUSAW&C.
Coincidentally in 1891, just a few days before the NUSA was formed, MDCEA came into being. This organisation merged in 1895 with Bolton Co-operative Employees' Association to become the AUCE.
In 1917 the AUCE changed its full title to the Amalgamated Union of Co-operative and Commercial Employees and Allied Workers torecruit workers employed outside the Co-operative Movement for the first time. This was re-inforced in 1920 when the AUCE merged withthe National Warehouse and General Workers' Union to becomeNUDAW on the 1st January 1921.
Several attempts were made to amalgamate with the NAUSAW&C between the wars but all came to nothing. It was not until 1946 that agreement was finally reached and the ballot was successful. On the 1st January 1947 Usdaw came into existence.
The same year that NUDAW and the NAUSAW&C agreed to amalgamate the Journeymen Butchers' Federation joined NUDAW. This merger brought into a single Union specialist workers in one of the most important distributive trades.
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