Operative Bricklayers' Society

O.B.S.
Operative Bricklayers' Society
Merged into	Amalgamated Union of Building Trade Workers
Founded	1818
Dissolved	1921
Members	38,830 (1900)

The Operative Bricklayers' Society (OBS) was a British New Model Trade Union based in London.

History

The society was founded in 1818 as the London Bricklayers' Society, but by 1829 had developed into a national operative union. By the 1840s the union had about 1,400 members, roughly 2% of the total number of bricklayers in the country at the time. In 1859 the union became embroiled in a dispute with employers over the introduction of a nine-hour working day, and the consequential London builders' strike was led by George Howell. The OBS was defeated, and subsequently only developed very gradually outside London. By 1900 the union had 38,830 members, but roughly half were based in London. In 1921 the OBS merged with the Manchester Unity of Operative Bricklayers' Society and the Operative Society of Masons, Quarrymen and Allied Trades of England and Wales to form the Amalgamated Union of Building Trade Workers (AUBTW).

The People's History Museum in Manchester holds the original emblem painting of the Operative Bricklayers' Society. It was painted in 1869 by Royal Academician A. J. Waudby, and hung in the Bricklayers' Head Office in London. It shows the society's work, proudly depicting the bricklayers' trade along with symbols of truth, architecture and science.^[1]