The ISTC's roots reach right back to the early days of the world's first industrial revolution
The ISTC's roots reach right back to the early days of the world's first industrial revolution which was built on the coal and iron industries in the North of England, Scotland, and Wales. It was in the ore mines and iron foundries that large numbers of people working long, back-breaking hours came together to form the first trade unions and grasp some control of their working conditions and pay.
There were many mergers in the union's history. Five ballots in 1917 of the largest unions of British steel workers a few weeks before the Russian Revolution and during the First World War were crucial in the ISTC's growth.
The Iron and Steel Trades Confederation (ISTC) was constituted on the 1st of January 1917 from a merger of the British Steel Smelters, Mill, Iron and Tinplate Workers, The Associated Iron and Steel Workers of Great Britain and the National Steel Workers’ Association Engineering and Labour League.
The ISTC was later joined by the Amalgamated Association of Steel & Iron Workers of Great Britain in 1920 and the Tin and Sheet Millmens Association in 1921. The Wire Workers Union joined in 1922, but withdrew in 1924. The Wire Workers Union rejoined in 1991. In 1985 the National Union of Blast-furnace-men joined the ISTC.
As well as representing the great majority of employees involved in the steel industry, the ISTC welcomed members from the electronics industry, plastics and glass, the manufacture of kitchen furniture, carpet production, and call centres, especially in areas where the local community was built around major steel industry installations.