The union was founded in 1878 as the Bradford and District Amalgamated Society of Dyers, Crabbers, Singers and Finishers.

Initially extremely small, with only 77 members at the end of the 1870s, it won a strike in 1880, and it thereafter recruited rapidly, membership reaching 700 by 1884 and 1,801 in 1891.

In 1892, it was renamed as the Amalgamated Society of Dyers, adding "Bleachers and Kindred Trades" in about 1900.

In the 1920s, it added "Finishers" to its name before, in 1936, merging with the National Union of Textile Workers and the Operative Bleachers, Dyers and Finishers Association to form the National Union of Dyers, Bleachers and Textile Workers.

[1] The union sponsored Willie Brooke as a Labour Party candidate at each general election from 1929 to 1935, twice winning a seat.