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International Federation of Glassworkers

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The International Federation of Glassworkers was a global union federation bringing together trade unions representing workers in the glass industry.

History

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The first international trade secretariat of glassworkers was established in 1892 at a conference in Fourmies, Nord. Named the International Glass Workers' Union, its headquarters were at Castleford in England, and it was led by Alfred Greenwood. It organised a second conference, in London, in 1894, but thereafter achieved little, and dissolved in 1900.[1][2]

In 1908, a conference of glassworkers was held in Paris, to found a new secretariat. This was located in Berlin until 1920, then moved to Paris. One of the smaller international trade secretariats, by 1925 it had 11 affiliates, with a total of 93,000 members. By 1935, it was moribund, and its remaining members joined the International Federation of Industrial Organisations and General Workers' Unions, which held its first glass industry sectional conference in Amsterdam in 1938.[1][3]

Affiliates

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As of 1922, the following unions were affiliated:[4]

Union Country Affiliated membership
Austria 3,798
National Federation of Glass Workers Belgium 5,466
Czechoslovakia 30,000
Danish Glass Workers' Union Denmark 495
Glass Federation France 4,000
Central Union of Glassworkers Germany 77,948
Dutch Union of Glass and Pottery Workers Netherlands 2,266
Sweden 1,000
National Flint Glass Makers' Society of Great Britain and Ireland United Kingdom 10,000

General Secretaries

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1908: Emil Girbig[1]
1921: Charles Delzant[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Sassenbach, Johannes (1926). Twenty-five years of international trade unionism. Amsterdam: International Federation of Trade Unions. p. 102.
  2. ^ "Greenwood, Alfred," Dictionary of Labour Biography, vol.IX, pp.97–102
  3. ^ "Section conferences held". Bulletin of the International Federation of Industrial Organizations and General Workers' Unions: 72. 1956.
  4. ^ The American Labor Yearbook. New York: Rand School of Social Science. 1924. p. 263.