History

Peterborough Trade Union Council was formed in October 1898. According to Tom Browning, in his unpublished history of PTUC, the formal decision was taken at a meeting attended by representatives of the "Amalgamated Society of Engineers; Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners; Operative Society of Bricklayers; Boilermakers; Basket Makers; Coachbuilders and the three local contingents of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants".

This was a time when the working class was growing in confidence and demanding to have its own, independent voice heard. In 1899, the Trade Union Council began standing Labour candidates in council elections. This, of course, was before the national Labour Party was formed and should serve to remind anyone who doubts it that it was the trade union movement that created the Labour Party as its political voice. Indeed, in 1918, the Trades Council formed Peterborough Labour Party.

During most of its history, PTUC grew in strength and activity, becoming well established as a leading aspect of the Labour and Trade union movement in the city and playing a part in local, national and international campaigns.

Unfortunately, from an historical point of view, a decision made by PTUC in 1959 to destroy all its minutes and financial records up to 1949 (because they had been seriously damaged by dampness) left us with a very incomplete record of what was, even from the little documentary evidence we have, obviously a fine tradition of trade union activity.