Catalogue Number
NMLH.1993.796
Object Name
Emblem
Title
AMALGAMATED ASSOCIATION OF CARD AND BLOWING ROOM OPERATIVES. This Is To Certify That ...
Place
Oldham & Lancashire & England & UK
Date
circa 1890
Description
Card and Blowing Room Operatives were as much a part of the Lancashire cotton industry as spinners, weavers, beamers, twisters, and knotters. The carding process drew the raw cotton into filaments and straightened them out. Blowing, the next stage, cleansed the filaments. The emblem, designed around 1890, proudly illustrates the manufacturing process. It shows off too the new technology and the corresponding skills acquired by the operatives.
The amalgamation of these operatives took place in 1886 following a thirteen week long strike in Oldham, Lancashire, in 1885. The dispute was over a ten per cent reduction in wages. The strike had not been successfull and the workers recognized that a union would need to have a central authority and one central fund to be able to endure such strikes.
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