Green’s Dictionary of Slang

the workhouse; also attrib.

1839		Comic Almanack Mar. 168: I wish I was a foreigner [...] Or in a poor-law union.
1844		Bucks Herald 7 Dec. 4/1: One of the relieving officers of the Aylesbury union complained against one James Cooper [etc.].
1855		Worcs. Chron. 3 Jan. 6/4: The Union children [...] were on Christmas day plentifully supplied with good old English fare.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 381/1: After that I stopped knocking about the country, sleeping in unions.
1876		M.E. Braddon Dead Men’s Shoes III 7: Our darling Trot was born in Winchester Union.
1882		Dundee Courier 18 Aug. 7/4: One accused me of having absconded from Haltwhistle Union.
1888		H. King Savage London 387: They’ll have to mend yer bellows if they means to keep yer in the Union.
1904		G.B. Shaw John Bull’s Other Island IV ii: Haffigan had better go to America, or into the Union, poor old chap! He’s worked out, you know.
1918		K.F. Purdon Dinny on the Doorstep 159: How would ye like it yourself to be having the Union to bury you!
1936		W.A. Gape Half a Million Tramps 41: And what nice places the ‘Unions’ are!
1944		J. Cary Horse’s Mouth (1948) 106: You can’t put me in the Union. I’m a householder.
1953		B. Behan Scarperer (1966) 82: It’s either that or he’ll have us up in the Union.
1973		H. Leonard Da (1981) Act II: And after that you had me put in the Union.
1982		(con. 1930s–50s) E. Mac Thomáis Janey Mack, Me Shirt is Black 150: The old workhouse was feared, avoided and jeered, even the tram conductors called out the tram stage by stage, ‘The Union now please, any more for the Union?’.
1995		P. Boland Tales from a City Farmyard 212: One of the great fears of Liberties people was that they would die in ‘The Union.’.