This decided not to offer evidence into the Government inquiry into trade unions, and also voted against 20-12 against joining the Chartists, although it did actively oppose the Corn Laws.

[1] In 1843, the Alliance formed the "United Trades Union", but this undertook little activity and dissolved in 1847 after the Table Knife Hafters Society borrowed £750 of its funds, then withdrew without repaying the loan.

[1] He persuaded Thomas Duncombe to become the President of a new National Association of United Trades for the Protection of Labour, but neither body had proved lasting.

When members of the Journeyman Printers' Society refused to accept the reduced terms, Harrison recruited non-union labour from London and attempted to prevent any of his remaining workers belonging to a union.

The union branch printed a statement, "The Press Trampling on the Rights of Labour", in response to which, Harrison took up proceedings for libel, claiming £2,000 in damages.

[1] Charles Bagshaw, the local secretary of the Razor Smiths' Union, attempted to bring the parties together for conciliation, but Harrison refused this.

In response to his threat of litigation, a meeting of local trade unions was held in Sheffield's Town Hall on 10 November 1858.

The committee called a series of further meetings, which finally agreed its rules and the title of Association of Organised Trades of Sheffield and Neighbourhood on 22 June 1859.

It also supported a Bill to create courts for compulsory arbitration, working closely with Sheffield's Members of Parliament, George Hadfield and John Arthur Roebuck.

[1] At the 1868 general election, Dronfield had on behalf of the trades council persuaded Anthony John Mundella to stand in the Sheffield constituency, believing that the Liberal would act in the interests of Labour.

The following year, the organisation sent delegates to the national Trades Union Congress, and in 1874 it hosted the event at Sheffield's Temperance Hotel.

[1] In 1885, the leaders of the Trades Council formed the Sheffield Labour Association to campaign for the election of workers to public bodies as members of the Liberal Party.

[8] Although the Executive of the Trades Council drew up an electoral agreement with the Liberal selected, a delegate meeting instead voted to support the Independent Labour Party (ILP) candidate.

A strong shop stewards' movement, with J. T. Murphy a leading figure, and a wave of strikes strengthened the position of the Trades and Labour.

[1][10] During the 1920s, the Trades Council was prominent in supporting strikers, such as during the engineering lockout of 1922, and measures to benefit the large numbers of unemployed workers.

[1] The organisation continued to move to the left, and was threatened with disaffiliation by Labour in 1940, after it passed a motion welcoming the Soviet invasion of Poland.