Leicester and District Trades Union Council

In the 1860s, the Leicester unions of Labourers, Trimmers, Hose Shirt and Drawers, and Sock and Top Union, formed a loose association to discuss matters of common interest, under the leadership of Isaac Abbott. In 1872, on the initiative of Daniel Merrick, it was replaced by a broader organisation, the Leicester Trades Council. The formation was inspired by concern over the Criminal Law Amendment Act, and perhaps also by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) being held in Nottingham in 1871.[1]

In 1875, Phoebe Mason of the Seamers' and Stitchers' Society was elected to the council, the first woman known to have served on any trade council in the UK. That year, Leicester hosted the TUC, and Merrick, representing the trades council, was elected as President of the TUC. By 1891, the council had 17,000 affiliated members, of whom, 13,500 were members of the Leicester and Leicestershire Amalgamated Hosiery Union, or the National Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives.[1]

The council endorsed several candidates for the Leicester Town Council and School Board, including Merrick, Thomas Smith and George Sedgwick. In 1890, the council backed several Labour Association candidates, who were elected to Leicester Town Council as Liberal-Labour members, but thereafter, the growing influence of socialists on the council led it to distance itself from Liberal candidates. In 1893, this led it to support a May Day demonstration, in support of the movement for an eight-hour day, while at the 1894 Leicester by-election, it backed Joseph Burgess, the Independent Labour Party candidate. It became a founding affiliate of the Labour Representation Committee in 1900.[1]

In 1962, the trades council sponsored a major arts festival in the city. From the late 1960s, the trades council became strongly involved in anti-racist activity in the city. In 1977, after the Conservative Party-controlled council gave the National Front permission to sell their paper outside Leicester Town Hall, the council's anti-racist committee organised a successful picket of it.[2]