Amalgamated Union of Co-operative Employees

The Amalgamated Union of Co-operative Employees (AUCE) was a trade union representing retail and related staff of co-operative businesses in the United Kingdom.

The union was founded in 1891 at a meeting in Romiley and was originally named the Manchester and District Co-operative Employees Association.^[2] Initially, it had joint secretaries, J. Thompson and Alfred Hewitt, but Thompson left the industry later in the year, leaving Hewitt as sole secretary until 1916.^[3]

From 1895, it accepted members from across the country, changing its name to the "Amalgamated Union of Co-operative Employees" and merging with the Bolton and District Co-operative Employees Association. On its formation its net assets were a modest £98 2s 2d. Its membership was 2,151, but the merger commenced a rapid rise in membership, from 2,414 in 1896 to 6,733 in 1900, 25,139 in 1908 and 44,000 by 1914. The membership always included women, although they formed only a small proportion of the total, and from at least 1909, it included workers in Ireland.^[2]

In 1917, the union renamed itself as the Amalgamated Union of Co-operative and Commercial and Allied Workers; despite the change in name, the union's constitution specified that its short form would remain "AUCE".^[4] In 1920, the Co-operative Agents' Union joined, but at the start of 1921, the AUCE merged with the National Warehouse and General Workers' Union, creating the National Union of Distributive and Allied Workers.^[2]