title: Tobacco Workers' Union
text: # Tobacco Workers' Union
  
  The Tobacco Workers' Union (TWU) was a trade union representing workers in all areas of the tobacco industry in the United Kingdom.
  
  ## History
  
  The union was founded in 1834 in London as the Friendly Society of Operative Tobacconists. Two years later, it expanded its membership to include tobacco cutters, dryers and stovers and was renamed the United Tobacconists Society. In 1851, it expanded again to include cigarette makers, and in 1881 it took another name, the United Operative Tobacconists throughout the Kingdom. For much of this period, the union was based in Liverpool at the houses of its successive general secretaries, but in 1918 it relocated to London.
  
  In 1925, the association became an industrial union, admitting all workers in the tobacco industry, including women, and adopted its final name. However, the following year, it was disaffiliated from the Trades Union Congress after other unions complained that it was poaching their members. It rejoined only in 1941. In 1946, the union merged with the rival National Cigar and Tobacco Workers' Union.
  
  In 1986, the union merged into Technical, Administrative and Supervisory Section, forming the union's new Tobacco Sector.
  
  ## Election results
  
  The union sponsored its Liverpool district organiser as a Labour Party candidate in the 1959 general election:
  
  | Constituency | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Position |
  | - | - | - | - | - |
  | Middleton and Prestwich | Fred Barton | 21,248 | 40.4 | 2 |
  
  ## General secretaries
  
      1834: Robert Stevens
      1910s: E. Kayler
      1924: C. W. Dorrell
      1925: Andrew Boyd
      1941: Percy Belcher
      1964: David Burke
      1967: Charles Butler
      1969: Doug Grieve
  