Trade unionism in British sport, 1920–1964

Abstract

Taking as its starting point contemporary and scholarly debates about the appropriateness of trade unionism in the British entertainment industry, this paper examines the origins and development of trade unions in three important professional sports – association football, boxing and speedway racing – from 1920 to 1964. Utilising the concept of ‘unionateness’, it maps out the trajectories of the key unions and professional associations in each of these sports, especially the Association Football Players' and Trainers' Union/Professional Footballers' Association, National Unions of Boxers/National Boxing Association and the Speedway Riders' Association. Particular emphasis is placed on the specific industrial and organisational contexts in which these unions emerged, as well as on the structures, membership and leadership of the unions. Unionateness varied over time and none of these bodies could be regarded at any point as fully ‘unionate’. However, the paper argues that each managed to wield considerable influence, through formalised collective bargaining processes, direct representation on industry-wide governing bodies or by directly challenging the authority of the controlling bodies. They thrived particularly for a short period from the late 1940s to the early 1950s, when attendances at spectator sports were high and the wider trade union movement was at its strongest and most confident.

Keywords::

• trade unionism
• football
• boxing
• speedway
• collective bargaining
• recognition
• unionateness

Notes

^1. Summerfield, “Effingham Arms,” 226.

^2. Crowhurst, “London's ‘Music Hall War’,” 151.

^3. Vamplew, Pay Up and Play the Game; Dabscheck, “Defensive Manchester”; and Taylor, “Boxers United.”

^4. Blackburn, Union Character, 14–42.

^5. Gall, Labour Unionism, 3. See also O'Brien, “Becoming ‘Unionate’” and Markey, “Organisational Consolidation and Unionateness.”

^6. “The Sports Industry” (The Economist, April 8, 1939, 75).

^7. Jones, “The Leisure Industry.”

^8. The National Archives (TNA), LAB 3/992, Football Association Report, 1950/51, 5.

^9. Dobson and Goddard, Economics of Football, 57–8.

^10. Sporting Chronicle, May 7, 1931, May 10, 1932 and TNA, LAB 3/992, Fred Howarth to Leslie Bowker, 30 October 1951.

^11. TNA, LAB 3/993, Minutes of Proceedings before a Committee of Investigation, 15 October 1951, First Day, 26.

^12. Holt and Mason, Sport in Britain, 65 and TNA, LAB 83/3346, The Industrial Court (2293), Entertainment Industry, 2 February 1951.

^13. Williams, “Responses to Speedway in Britain,” 5–6.

^14. TNA, CUST 118/504, “Speedway Racing” memo, 30 May 1951.

^15. TNA, CUST 118/569, Note for meeting with Speedway deputation, 22 February 1957.

^16. Nicholson, The Professionals, 180.

^17. Speedway News, April 17, 1930; Modern Records Centre (MRC), 660/1/1/4, Minutes of Auto-Cycle Union (ACU) General Council, 4 July 1930; and Speedway News, December 29, 1949.

^18. TNA, LAB 8/1935, Note of meeting with Speedway Control Board deputation, 10 June 1953 and Nicholson, The Professionals, 181.

^19. TNA, CUST 118/569, Note for meeting with representatives of the British Boxing Board of Control, 18 February 1957, 6–7.

^20. Boxing News figures cited in TNA, CUST 118/569, Note for meeting with representatives of the BBBC, 18 February 1957, 4; Holt and Mason, Sport in Britain, 64; and TNA, CUST 118/569, J. Onslow Fane to Harold Macmillan, 2 January 1957.

^21. Boxing, August 21, 1935, January 1, 1936 and Holt and Mason, Sport in Britain, 64.

^22. MRC 660/1/1/7, Minutes of ACU Track Committee, 30 March 1933; MRC 660/1/1/10, Minutes of Speedway Control Board (SCB), 19 June, 17 August 1945; and Marston and Steed, Speedway Cavalcade, 54.

^23. For figures from the period up to 1915, see Vamplew, Pay Up and Play the Game, 247–8.

^24. Professional Footballers' Association (PFA), Manchester, Minutes of AFPTU AGM, 20 August 1923; File 35, Note on Union Membership in the 1930s, undated; Minutes of Joint Meeting of Management Committees of Football League and AFPTU, 26 April 1939.

^25. Bain, Growth of White-Collar Unionism, 200–1 (Table 3A.1) and MRC, MSS.292/91F/111, James Guthrie to Trade Union Congress (TUC), 11 December 1954.

^26. TNA, LAB 10/1078, J. Hughes to Industrial Relations Officer, 14 July 1953.

^27. PFA, Minutes of AFPTU AGM, 1 November 1948.

^28. Hill, Striking for Soccer, 21.

^29. PFA, Minutes of AFPTU, 6 February 1933, 21 August 1933 (AGM).

^30. TNA, LAB 3/993, Minutes of Proceedings before a Committee of Investigation, 15 October 1951, Fourth Day, 40 and Harding, For the Good of the Game, 247–8.

^31. MRC, 660/1/1/5, Minutes of ACU General Council, 15 February 1929.

^32. Speedway News, April 17, 1930 and MRC, 660/1/1/5, Minutes of ACU Track Licensing Committee, 9 January, 28 February 1930.

^33. MRC, 660/1/1/9, Minutes of SCB, 30 September 1937.

^34. Woodcock, “Speedway Riders’ Association,” 56–7.

^35. TNA, FS 27/269, Rules of the National Union of Boxers, 24 July 1935.

^36. TNA, FS 27/269, National Union of Boxers, 1935–39.

^37. TNA, FS 12/475, Association of British Boxers and Bell, Inside the Fight Game, 16.

^38. Boxing News, June 29, 1949; TNA: PRO, FS 12/496, Professional Boxers' Association.

^39. Manchester Guardian, May 21, 1953 and TNA: PRO, FS 27/371, Harry Davis to F.K. White, 18 May 1950; Harry Davis to Registrar of Friendly Societies, 4 August, 21 September 1959.

^40. TNA, CO 876/89, Note on Biography of Harry A. Flower, March 1947 and Boxing News, June 29, 1949.

^41. Harding, For the Good of the Game, 241.

^42. Dabscheck, “Unions and Sport.”

^43. Gospel, “Employers and Managers,” 166.

^44. MRC, 660/1/1/5, Minutes of Track Licensing Committee (TLC), 6 June 1929 and 660/1/1/9, Minutes of SCB, 9 June 1937.

^45. MRC, 660/1/1/9, Minutes of TLC, 10 February 1938.

^46. MRC, 660/1/1/6, Minutes of TLC, 12 February 1931 and 660/1/110, Minutes of SCB, 26 January 1939.

^47. Speedway News, November 4, 1948 and Woodcock, “Speedway Riders’ Association.”

^48. TNA, LAB 8/1935, Minute, 16 December 1952; E.V. Crookenden to W.W. Fearnley, 3 July 1953; LAB 8/2978, W.W. Fearnley to S. Forth, 6 July 1964.

^49. Bell, Inside the Fight Game, 184–5.

^50. PFA, Minutes of AFPTU, 10 February 1930, 20 April 1938.

^51. TNA, LAB 10/575, Report on Wages Dispute, Regional Industrial Relations Officer, Manchester, 11 September 1946.

^52. TNA, LAB 10/575, National Arbitration Tribunal, Award No. 942, 11 April 1947.

^53. TNA, LAB 10/986, Association Football, H.G. Whitson, 21 July 1951; Football Association and Football League, 27 October 1950; Note on the Dispute between the Players' Union and the Football Association and the Football League, 23 July 1951.

^54. Green, History of the Football Association, 423.

^55. TNA, LAB 10/986, Note of Meeting Held on 17 July 1951, 20 July 1951.

^56. Hill, Striking for Soccer, 22.

^57. TNA, LAB 83/3346, James P. Donovan to J. Hughes, 23 March 1951; quotation from LAB 10/1078, Industrial Relations Report, 16 February 1953.

^58. TNA, LAB 10/1078, Extract from Report of Industrial Relations Officer, for week-ending 16 January 1953; Industrial Relations Report, 4 August 1953.

^59. TNA, LAB 10/1078, Industrial Relations Report, 11 May 1953.

^60. TNA, LAB 10/1078, Minute, 18 February 1953; Industrial Relations Report, 2 March 1953.

^61. MRC, 660/1/1/9, Minutes of SCB, 29 July 1937; Speedway News, July 31, 1937; and Speedway Gazette, April 16, 1949.

^62. See MRC, 660/1/1/10, Minutes of SCB, 29 September 1938; 24 August 1939; Speedway News, April 13, 1935; Speedway World, April 5, 19, 1950; and Daily Mirror, August 22, 1963.

^63. Sanderson, From Irving to Olivier, 250 and Miller, “Turf Wars,” 116–22.

^64. MRC, MSS.292/91B/30, Harry A. Flower to TUC, 26 September 1935.

^65. TNA, FS 27/371, Harry Davis to Registrar of Friendly Societies, 4 August 1959.

^66. MRC, MSS.292/91B/30, Frank Knights to TUC, 12 September 1936; TUC to W. Shaw, 29 January 1936 and MRC, MSS.292/91F/111, Organisation Department, TUC to A. Boyd, 2 December 1959.

^67. MRC, MSS.292/91B/30, Harry A. Flower to Walter Citrine, 12 June 1936; TUC to J. P. Roe, 17 September 1936; Harry A. Flower to TUC, 26 September 1935.

^68. MRC, MSS.292/91B/30, Harry A. Flower to Walter Citrine, 12 June 1936.

^69. MRC, MSS.292/92/2, S.R. Singleton to TUC, 8 June 1948.

^70. Harding, For the Good of the Game, 258.

^71. Hill, Striking for Soccer, 65–6.

^72. MRC, MSS.292/91B/30, TUC to W. Shaw, 29 January 1936.

^73. PFA, Minutes of AFPTU Management Committee, 16 May 1938.

^74. Nicholson, The Professionals, 193–9.

^75. Korr, “Two Cheers for the Professional,” 299.

^76. McIlroy, Trade Unions in Britain, 5.

^77. Blackburn, Union Character, 18.

^78. Campbell, Fishman, and McIlroy, “Post-War Compromise,” 98–9.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Matthew Taylor

Matthew Taylor is Professor of History in the International Centre for Sports History and Culture at De Montfort University, Leicester. His research has focused mainly on the social and cultural history of British and global sport, including most recently ‘The Global Ring? Boxing, Mobility and Transnational Networks in the Anglophone World, 1890–1914’, Journal of Global History, 8: 2, July 2013. He is the author of Moving With the Ball: The Migration of Professional Footballers (Berg, 2001), co-authored with Pierre Lanfranchi and The Association Game: A History of British Football (Longman, 2008).