Growth of trade unions Flashcards
Factory system consolidated
1769
small units labour cottage
master journeyman apprentice
wages low as possible
12-15 shillings (poverty wage 9 shillings/week in 1834)
Didn’t increase with inflation
population, causing high job demand
6-17 million in 1750-1850
local strike action
e.g 1765 miners in northeast
1834
Grand National
Grand National failure
‘The Document’
claimed to have 1 million signatures
motive of mutual protection, working class solidarity
1793
London Printer’s Association
539 signatures to increase wages
Successful
free trade
workers had to protect themselves and their rights
War and laws introduced
1793, French
1799 income tax
1815 corn law
issue of wages felt more acutely/climate for economic discontent
soldiers
thousands returned to no work
wigan
1799 Wigan weavers formed to stop wage reduction
14 branches in Lancashire by May
why did withdraw intervention?
believed prosperity happens with minimum intervention
laws to stop unions
1799/1800 Combination Acts
1797 unlawful Oaths Act with harsher sentences for favoured , repealed 1824, suggesting failure and legitimised increase
John Doherty
1829 2 unions including National Association for Protection of Labour
Both only lasted 2 years
Reasons for expansion trade societies
- factory system increased demand for workers (understood profitability to employer)
- government reluctant to interfere (market forces + entrepreneurialism), leads to exploitation
Trade societies, who represented
skilled tradesmen e.g printers, cobblers, mechanics
how did trade societies protect status?
‘closed shop’ practices
monitor entry to professions/regulate process of apprenticeship (only employ union members)
example knobsticks attacked
verbally or physically
e.g Saw Grinders’ Union strike in Sheffield 1866
knobsticks reason
financial implications of refusing to work undermined militancy
