Trade unionism
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Early trade unionism
Skilled workers in Britain began organising themselves into
trade unions in the 17th century (preceded by guilds
in medieval times). During the 18th century, when the
industrial revolution prompted a wave of new trade disputes,
the government introduced measures to prevent collective action
on the part of workers. The Combination Acts, passed in 1799
and 1800, during the Napoleonic wars, made any sort of strike
action illegal - and workmen could receive up to three months'
imprisonment or two months' hard labour if they broke these
new laws.
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Trade union delegation ignored, 1830
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Despite the Combination Acts, workers continued
to press for better pay and working conditions during the early
part of the 19th century, and trade unions grew rapidly in London
and elsewhere. Finally, after violent Luddite
protests in 1811 and 1812, Parliament repealed the Combination
Acts in 1824 and 1825. Trade unions could now no longer be ignored
as a political force, though employers remained reluctant to
treat workers' representatives as their equals. |
| During the 1830s labour unrest and trade union
activity reached new levels. For the first time men began to
organise trade associations with nationwide aims, such as Robert
Owen's short-lived Grand National Consolidated Trades Union,
formed in February 1834. Agricultural workers were also adopting
new forms of collective action - a notable example being the
Swing Riots in 1830-1. |
Anti-Swing poster, c.1830
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The Tolpuddle Martyrs, 1834
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The Tolpuddle Martyrs
In March 1834, with the connivance of the Whig
government, six agricultural labourers who had formed a trade
union in the Dorsetshire village of Tolpuddle were arrested
on trumped-up charges and transported to Australia. The unfair
treatment of the 'Tolpuddle Martyrs', as they became known,
triggered brief public protests throughout Britain. But the
harsh sentences discouraged other workers from joining trade
unions, and many of the nationwide organisations, including
the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union, collapsed.
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Rapid trade union growth
Although trade union membership continued to grow during
the next two decades, up to around 1850 they tended to be
overshadowed by political movements such as Chartism.
But in the improved economic conditions of the 1850s and 1860s
the foundations of a powerful trade union movement were established
and membership rose from approximately 100,000 in the early
1850s to around a million by 1874.
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TUC's questions for
parliamentary candidates, 1879
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Gas stokers' plea for clemency, 1873
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Engineers, miners and agricultural labourers formed
new national or regional trade organisations. The Trades Union
Congress (TUC), a national forum for co-ordinating trade union
demands, was founded in Manchester in 1868. The 1871 Trade Union
Act, introduced by William Gladstone's Liberal government, established
the legal status of trade unions - although other legislation
made it difficult for unions to organise picketing and strikes. |
'New unionism'
The economic slump of the 1870s and 1880s presented new challenges.
Labour leaders such as Thomas Mann, one of the chief organisers
of the successful London dock strike (1889), argued that the
trade union movement needed to become far more open and inclusive.
'New unionism' reached out to the many unskilled workers in
Britain who lacked union representation. The first women's
'trade societies' also began to emerge during this period.
The strike by the female workers at the Bryant & May match
factory, in the East End of London, in July 1888 highlighted
the expanding boundaries of trade union activity in Britain.
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Conspiracy and Protection
of Property Act, 1875
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Tom Mann, first Secretary of the
Independent Labour Party
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By the early 20th century trade unions
were larger and more influential than ever before. Particularly
after the formation of the Independent Labour Party (ILP) in
1893, the trade union movement developed a close relationship
with the political left. This bond was strengthened by the Taff
Vale case (1900-1), in which the House of Lords supported the
right of the Taff Vale Railway Company to sue members of the
Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants for striking in August
1900. |
Many trade unions subsequently joined the Labour
Representation Committee (LRC), an organisation created to unite
trade unionists and socialists in a single political movement.
Between 1900 and 1906, the number of Labour MPs in Parliament
rose from 2 to 29. The link established in this period between
the Labour Party and trade unionism still exists today.
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Taff Vale Railway strike, 1900
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