| Administrative History | Aberdeen Trades Union Council was established in 1868. Its formation at this time was prompted by the effects of the great strike of 1868, and achieved largely through the efforts of the Aberdeen branches of the Associated Carpenters and Joiners of Scotland, and the Operative Masons' and Granite Workers' Union. The Council assumed responsibility for organising the annual summer holiday for the Aberdeen trades, and from the outset, took an active role in both trade and municipal matters within the city.
A full account of the Council's establishment and its first seventy years is given in: A history of the Trades Council and the Trade Union Movement in Aberdeen (William Diack, Aberdeen Trades Council, 1939), Trade Unionism in Aberdeen 1878 – 1900 (K. D. Buckley, Edinburgh, 1955) and C.W.M. Phipps 'The Aberdeen Trades Council and Politics 1900-1939' (University of Aberdeen thesis, 1980). |
| Copies | Microfilm copies (5 reels) of the records from 1876 - 1951 are available (with introduction by Doris Hatvany), including: Council minutes (1876 - 1951), annual reports (1884 - 1936, with many gaps), minutes of sundry committees (1899 - 1922), Unemployment Association (1934 - 1941) and joint Trades Council and burgh Labour Party (1936 - 1937). |