General Union of Loom Overlookers
[2] In 1875, a National Confederate Association of Power Loom Overlookers was established as a loose organisation of sixteen local trade unions, most based in Lancashire.In 1885, it organised a conference with the larger Blackburn and Pendleton unions, which saw themselves as friendly societies and had refused to join the confederation.The conference was successful, and the General Union of Associations of Power-Loom Overlookers was established.However, membership then began to fall, in line with the decline in the British cotton industry.[6] It suffered a dramatic loss of membership as mills closed during the 1980s and 1990s, with only 265 members remaining at the end of the century.