trade unions - from essays Flashcards
1914-18 … men joined armed forces = … total pre-war male labour force
5,670,000
~38%
by … … chemical & explosives workers, … electrical engineers & … miners enlisted creating serious shortage skilled labour
July 1915
25%
24%
22%
… fewer engineering workers than before war & munitions factories … workers short of requirements
48,000
14,000
(WWI) trade union membership rose from … to …
almost 4mil
almost 6mil
key wartime industries union membership grew most rapidly - mining by …, railways by …
17.5%
56%
DORA … & Munitions Act …
1914
1915
… Rent Strike in Clydeside
1915
… strikes at Fairfield Shipyard on Clyde -> abolition leaving certificates in …
1915
1916
(WW1) strike action inc. steadily - … all working days lost occurred in …
68%
1917-18
(WWI) … all workers in engineering industry granted … pay inc. following extensive strike action
1917
12.5%
40-Hour Strike … campaigned for … to 40 hour working week
1919
47
(40-Hour Strike) … workers by … -> … English soldiers
60,000
31st
10,000
(40-Hour Strike) leaders …, … & … jailed for several months
Shinwell
Gallacher
Kirkwood
B Army = … men Nov 1918 -> … 1919
almost 3.8mil
900,000
by 1920 … members
over 8mil
… Railways Strike led by … demanding continuation wartime wages
1919
NUM
… Miners’ Strike led by … demanding continued nationalisation
1921
MFGB
Russian Rev … & German ‘Oct Rev’ …
1917
1918
… leader of NUR, … leader of MFGB = committed socialists
Jimmy Thomas
Robert Smillie
some historians e.g. … & … have argued union activity didn’t represent ‘revolutionary activity’
Ian McLean
Alastair Reid
1922 election Com Party … vote, Lab … & Con …
0.2%
29.7%
38.5%
following denationalisation in … mining wages slashed … nationally, … in S Wales
1921
30%
49%
Miners’ Strike … collapsed after … following ‘betrayal’ by …
1921
10 weeks
NUR/NTWF
Samuel Commission … recommended … pay cut
1926
13.5%
Arthur Cook’s slogan …
‘not a penny off the pay, not a minute on the day’
… mine owners announced would no longer abide by Min Wage Agreement … = reducing wages by … & lengthening working day …
1925
1924
13%
from 7 to 8 hours
Baldwin agreed to subsidise miners’ wages for … = … hailed as ‘Red Friday’
9 months
31st July 1925
1921-25 likely B workers saw total fall in wages of …
£12mil/week
… Chancellor of Exchequer Churchill reintroduced Gold Standard = fixed value at …
1925
$4.46
‘Black Friday’
1921
(Gen Strike) … co-ordinated strikers’ activities on behalf General Council
Ernest Bevin & Strike Organisation Committee
historian … suggests studies represent Gen Strike as ‘chaotic’
Keith Laybourn
… power stations remained open & in … … new 1,000-tonne ships arriving & unloaded throughout May
London, Barnsley & other industrial areas
Merseyside
50
(Gen Strike) invoked Emergency Powers Act … using troops to man essential services
1920
(Gen Strike) recruited … volunteers into Organisation for the maintenance of Supplies
~5,000
(Gen Strike) London short flour -> … convoy … lorries & armoured cars escorted food & essentials to food centre in Hyde Park
8th May
over 100
BBC formed in …, during Gen Strike no news broadcast until personally vetted by …, all … daily news bulletins submitted for approval
1922
John Colin Campbell Davidson, Chairman Con Party
5
(Gen Strike) produced …, … only allowed to be published as 4-page publication
B Gazette
B Worker
