It represented semi-skilled foundry workers known as iron dressers or fettlers, who were responsible for removing moulding sand and excess metal from castings.
The union was founded in about 1863 as the Iron Dressers' Society,[1] gradually extending its name to Iron, Steel and Metal Dressers' Society.
It was renamed in 1951 as the Iron, Steel and Metal Dressers and Kindred Trades Society, then in 1964 as the Associated Metal Workers Society, soon after taking its final name.
[3] Facing a dramatic drop in membership, it left the Trades Union Congress in 1987,[4] but subsequently rejoined.
In 1999, it merged into the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union.