{{short description|Former trade union of the United Kingdom}} {{Infobox union | name = Association of Building Technicians | image = | founded = 1919 | dissolved = 1970 | merged_into = Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers and Painters | num_members = | publication = | location = United Kingdom | affiliations = TUC | key_people = | headquarters = 5 Ashley Place, Victoria, London | footnotes = }} The '''Association of Building Technicians''' (ABT) was a trade union representing architects, surveyors and related workers in the United Kingdom.
==History== The union was founded in 1919 as the '''Architects' and Surveyors' Assistants' Professional Union'''. In 1924, it changed its name to the '''Association of Architects, Surveyors and Technical Assistants''',<ref name="warwick">{{cite web |title=Association of Building Technicians |url=http://mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk/records/ABT |website=Modern Records Centre |publisher=University of Warwick |accessdate=2 July 2018}}</ref> and its membership and influence increased into the 1930s, as it became associated with left-wing ideas in architecture. Its membership included some prominent members of the Communist Party of Great Britain, such as Francis Skinner and Graeme Shankland, and the union's leadership was also composed of party members.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wall |first1=Christine |title=An Architecture of Parts: Architects, Building Workers and Industrialisation |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=1135091072 |page=207}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Stevenson |first1=Graham |title=Shankland Graeme |url=http://www.grahamstevenson.me.uk/index.php/biographies/s-u/s/517-graeme-shankland |website=Compendium of Communist Biography |accessdate=2 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180702234809/http://www.grahamstevenson.me.uk/index.php/biographies/s-u/s/517-graeme-shankland |archive-date=2 July 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Allan |first1=John |title=Obituary: Francis Skinner |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-francis-skinner-1139173.html |accessdate=2 July 2018 |work=The Independent |date=17 January 1998}}</ref>
In 1942, the union renamed itself again, this time as the '''Association of Building Technicians'''. It gradually declined in membership until 1970, when it merged with the Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers and the Amalgamated Society of Painters and Decorators, forming the Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers and Painters.<ref name="warwick" />
==General Secretaries== :1936: Cleve Barr<ref>{{cite news |last1=Saint |first1=Andrew |title=A. W. Cleve Barr |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/jun/08/guardianobituaries1 |accessdate=4 July 2018 |work=The Guardian |date=8 June 2000}}</ref> :1940s: Virginia Penn :1948: F. E. Shosbree
==References== {{Reflist}}
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Category:Defunct trade unions of the United Kingdom Category:1919 establishments in the United Kingdom Category:Building and construction trade unions Category:Trade unions established in 1919 Category:Trade unions disestablished in 1970 Category:Trade unions based in London