Scope and Content of the Collection
The Trade Union Congress papers consist of materials from a group visit by representatives of British shipbuilding unions to United States and Canadian shipyards. The group of eight men represented electrical workers, boilermakers, shipwrights, machinists, sheetmetal workers, carpenters, engineers, plumbers, and pipefitters. They made the trip to study American methods of ship construction which could be of assistance to Great Britain's wartime shipbuilding industry. Contained in these papers are itineraries, reports on the shipyards visited, the draft and final reports to the British Minister of Labour, articles and clippings about the tour, and a lecture on the British Shipbuilding program.