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Power and the People > Workers' Movements > Flashcards

Workers' Movements Flashcards

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1
Q

Describe the Newcastle keelmen

A
  • 1699
  • worked on small boats loading coal onto sea-going ships on the river Tyre
  • banded together to give themselves more power to negotiate with their employers regarding wages and conditions
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2
Q

Describe the Combination Acts

A
  • 1779, 1800

* prevented combinations of either workers or employers

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3
Q

Describe the Luddites

A

a group of workers who used force to try and protect their status because of the new technology

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4
Q

Describe friendly societies

A
  • groups of skilled workers (could afford subscriptions of 2 shillings a week)
  • more effective
  • paid sick or unemployment pay for more than a year, made payments to widows
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5
Q

Describe general unions

A
  • Grand National Consolidated Trade Union (GNCTU)
  • National Union of Mineworkers
  • National Union of Railwaymen
  • 10% members were women- mostly textile mills in Lancashire and Yorkshire
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6
Q

Describe the formation of the Tolpuddle Martyrs

A
  • February 1834- six agricultural labourers in Tolpuddle, Dorset, tried to form a Union
  • average farmer’s wage was 10 shillings a week
  • wages cut for the 3rd time recently, to 7 shillings a week, wanted a wage rise
  • Combination Acts has been repealed, trade unions were legal
  • led by George Loveless, local Methodist Preacher
  • had to make an oath to join
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7
Q

When was the Act Against Unlawful Oaths made?

A

• 1797

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8
Q

Describe the punishment of the Tolpuddle Martyrs

A
  • James Frampton- local landowner found out
  • George Loveless said illegality was unintentional
  • all were sentences to seven years transportation (maximum sentence)
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9
Q

Describe the consequences of the Tolpuddle Martyrs

A
  • 21st April 1834- 200,000 people (mostly workers) met at Copenhagen Fields, London, marched to Parliament
  • petition with 800,000 names demanding their release
  • families were supported for 3 years by contributions organised by Unions- protests continued
  • 1837- repeal
  • London Dorchester Committee raised money and bought farms for the men in Essex
  • spent rest of lives campaigning for working men’s rights
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10
Q

Describe George Loveless

A
  • 13th June 1837- first to return from transportation
  • wrote Victims of Whiggery (best-selling pamphlet)- cost 4d, profits went to families
  • widely quoted at Chartist meetings throughout the country
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11
Q

Describe transportation

A
  • used in Stuart times (1787)
  • alternative to death penalty
  • 100,000 initial settlers in North America were indentured labourers or criminals
  • harsh conditions- many died en route or were worked to death/died of disease
  • had to pay passage to come home after sentence ended
  • officially ended in 1868
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12
Q

Describe the Amalgamated Society of Engineers

A
  • subscription of 1 shilling a week

* 1870- 35,000 members

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13
Q

Describe the Master and Servants Act

A
  • 1823
  • illegal for workers to break their contract with their employer; could not go on strike
  • used repeatedly by courts
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14
Q

Describe Hernby v Close

A
  • 1867

* Bradford Union prevented from getting its money back from a treasurer who had abandoned with it

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15
Q

Describe the trade unions in Sheffield

A
  • 1870s
  • cutlery trade
  • 56 different unions
  • Corn grinders had 14 members
  • Scythe makers had 55 members
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16
Q

Describe the London builders strike

A
  • September 1859
  • demanded a 9-hour day
  • local strike by masons working for Messrs Trollope spread
  • other master builders locked out their workers who refused to sign a pledge not to join a union or go on strike
  • Unions sent money to support the workers
  • February 1860- compromise; allowed unions, ten-hour day
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17
Q

Describe trade councils

A
  • 1860s
  • most new industrial towns had them
  • union delegates would meet
18
Q

Describe the Trade Union Congress

A
  • 1868
  • national co-ordinating council
  • annual meeting of delegates
  • 1888- first resolution- equal pay for men and women doing the same job
19
Q

Describe male suffrage

A

1867, 1884- most men received the vote

20
Q

Describe A.J. Mundella as a factory owner

A
  • pro-union employer
  • Nottingham hosiery manufacturer
  • made a fortune adopting most up-to-date machines and techniques to make stockings
  • 1847- 4,000 workers
  • paid high wages, good working conditions, 9-hour days
  • system of industrial arbitration to settle disputes
21
Q

Describe A.J. Mundella as an MP

A
  • became liberal MP
  • 1871- guided first ever Trade Union Act through Parliament
  • 1872- guided Act to reduce amount of time women and children worked in coal mines through Parliament
  • unoffical spokesman for trade unions in House of Commons
22
Q

When did unions of non- skilled workers emerge

A

• 1880s

23
Q

How were the non-skilled unions catalysed into formation

A
  • gap between rich and poor had widened significantly

* rich people from new towns were moving to the suburbs- workers had to become more self-reliant

24
Q

Describe Annie Besant

A
  • spent whole life campaigning for workers’ rights
  • socialist, orator
  • 1877- stood trial with Charles Bradlaugh for publishing a book on birth control- found guilty of publishing an obscene book- sentenced to 6 months prison- acquitted on technicality
  • The Link- weekly journal
  • The White Slaves of London
25
Q

Describe ‘The White Slaves of London’

A
  • article written by Annie Besant in The Link
  • about women workers at Bryant and May
  • 5 shillings for 70 hour weeks
  • dangerous and unpleasant work
  • Phossy jaw- using white phosphorus (banned in many countries) to make matches could lead to brain tumours and death
26
Q

Describe the match girls’ strike

A
  • 1888
  • employers asked the workers to sign a document saying they were fairly treated- most refused and went on strike
  • Annie Besant helped them to formulate their demands, publicised their cause
  • took 50 to MPs to demand a fairer wage
  • they organised a union
  • strike lasted 5 weeks
27
Q

Describe the London Gas Workers Union

A
  • March 1889
  • meeting in East London- 800 workers joined
  • demanded 8-hour day
  • after 2 weeks- 3,000 members
  • employers conceded
28
Q

Describe the London Docks grievances

A
  • 12,000 labourers competing for 5,000 jobs loading and unloading ships
  • some skilled, some on regular contract, most ‘casuals’
29
Q

Describe ‘casuals’

A
  • turned up in the morning to see if there was any work
  • employed for an hour, a morning or a day
  • paid 4d per hour
30
Q

Describe the demands at South Quay

A
  • Docker’s tanner to be paid 6d per hour
  • overtime to be paid at 8d per hour
  • minimum employment of 4 hours
31
Q

Describe the London Dock Strike

A
  • 22nd August- whole of Port of London at a standstill
  • pickets stopped non-strikers working
  • processions and mass meetings held daily
  • sympathy strikes all over London (postmen, coal men, railway porters)
  • food relief raised by organisations was handed out
  • late August- £30,000 gift from trade unions in Australia
  • September- most demands conceded
32
Q

Describe the growth of unions

A
  • between 1888 and 1891- membership doubled

* trade and wages were good, unemployment was falling

33
Q

Describe the May Day rally

A
  • 1890

* demanded 8-hour day

34
Q

Describe the Grand National Consolidated Trade Union

A
  • mostly in London, skilled workers
  • 1834- flourished very briefly
  • tried to combine workers in all trades all over the country
  • claimed to have 500,000 members (acc 16,000)
  • proposed National Holiday or general strike to improve wages
  • quickly disintegrated
  • developed the idea of worker solidarity
35
Q

Describe blacklegs

A
  • non-union workers

* broke strikes

36
Q

Describe the methods used to break strikes

A
  • lock-outs; attempt to starve
  • government used to troops to protect blacklegs, and to force strikers to give way
  • used law courts to restrict union power
37
Q

Describe the Amalgamated Society of Engineers

A
  • 1897
  • locked-out for 6 months
  • rather than to concede an 8-hour day
  • workers forced to return to new machinery and conditions
38
Q

Describe Lyons v Wilkins

A
  • 1896

* illegal to picket a workplace to stop blacklegs, even peacefully

39
Q

Describe the Taff Vale judgment

A
  • 1901

* any union going on strike had to pay damages for the loss of income by strike action

40
Q

Describe the Independent Labour Party

A
  • 1892- Kier Hardy elected to Parliament as an Independent, then Independent Labour
  • 1893- formation of party
  • result of strikes
  • 1898- West Ham became first local council controlled by Labour
  • stood for elections for Poor Law guardians and school boards
41
Q

Describe Kier Hardy

A
  • 1856- 1915
  • illegitimate son of a servant
  • aged 8- baker’s delivery boy
  • aged 11- coal miner
  • taught himself literacy
  • led coal strike in Scotland
  • 1906- first leader of the Labour Party in Parliament
  • supported women’s suffrage and equality

Power and the People (19 decks)

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