The Operative Builders' Union was an early trade union federation representing construction and maintenance workers in the United Kingdom. The union dated its formation to 1831, although it is not known to have existed with certainty until 1833. By then, it consisted of seven craft unions: the Operative Society of Bricklayers, Friendly Society of Operative House Carpenters and Joiners, Operative United Painters, Operative Federal Plasterers, Operative Plumbers' and Glaziers' Society, Slaters Society and Friendly Society of Operative Stonemasons. Each affiliate was organised in several districts, which had a central lodge. Each year, one of these affiliate's lodges would provide the Grand Lodge Committee, which arranged co-ordination between the affiliates. The location was decided at an tw