The Central Association of Lithographic and Copper-Plate Printers' Societies was founded in or before 1860 by local trade unions, in Belfast, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield.
This was the Amalgamated Society of Lithographic Printers and Auxiliaries, based in Manchester.
[1] The union initially had about 500 members, but it grew rapidly under the leadership of George Davy Kelley, setting up its own offices in Manchester.
The Manchester branch ran the union, with it electing the entire executive until 1914.
[1] In the 1950s and 1960s, there was a boom in lithographic printing, and although it led membership to increase to 11,000, the union worried that it would lose control of the trade.