A municipal worker works for a local authority - a town, city or county council. The 'municipal' concept has traditionally covered a very wide array of occupations. A trawl through the 1935 volume of the journal of the General and Municipal Workers Union brings up the following shortlist:
GMWU Journal, Dec 1935
Gasworkers
[Mental] hospital workers
Chemical industry workers
Brewery workers
Electricity supply workers
Iron and steel industry workers
Car park attendants
Dockers
Hotel workers
Quarrymen
Co-operative Wholesale Society factory workers
To find out more about the history of general unions, which sought to organise and represent unskilled and semi-skilled workers, click here.
Resources about municipal workers in the library collection
George Bernard Shaw, The commonsense of municipal trading, 2nd ed (1912) - Shelfmark: H26
R B Suthers, Mind your own business: the case for municipal management (1905) - Shelfmark: A63
George Haw, Today's work: municipal government the hope of democracy (1901) - Shelfmark: A27
Keir Hardie, The common good: an essay in municipal government (no date) - Shelfmark: AG Independent Labour Party Box 11
Fabian Society, Municipal hospitals (1900) - Shelfmark: AG Fabian Tracts
Arthur Greenwood, The brewers repentant (ca. 1919) - Shelfmark: J19/6
C Ashmore Baker, Public versus private electricity supply, Fabian Tract 173 (1913) - Shelfmark: J18/6
Iron and Steel Trades Confederation, What is wrong with the British iron and steel industry?: a statement of policy involving private enterprise, the workers and the nation (1931) - Shelfmark: J19/21
Raphael Samuel (ed.), Miners, quarrymen and saltworkers (1977) - Shelfmark: J30
J Roose Williams, Quarryman's champion: the life and activities of William John Parry of Coetmor (1978) - Shelfmark: E01
