In the early 19th century the economic situation for the majority of the United Kingdom’s workers was dire. The influx of veterans from the Napoleonic wars seeking work and the loss of government contracts to supply the army had a major impact on the country’s economic woes. The position was particularly bad for the many thousands of agricultural workers living in abject poverty in the British countryside. Many farm labourers lived in tied houses on starvation level wages. For many the Enclosure Act had led to the loss of the common land which their families used to graze animals, the winter work of cereal threshing was under threat from the landowner’s purchase of threshing machines and the poor harvests of 1828 and 1829 resulted in rising food prices and falling wages.
The lives of the country’s industrial workers in the towns and cities were no better. Workers and their families lived in insanitary conditions and for the most part worked long hours in unsafe and unhealthy conditions.
The “Luddites” and “Machine Breakers”
The Luddite movement began when British textile artisans protested at the changes in production methods brought about during the industrial revolution. They saw their livelihoods being threatened by the introduction of large mills and their fellows being forced to work in degrading conditions.
In 1811 and 1812 mills and factory machinery were burned by handloom weavers and for a time action was so widespread that it led to clashes with the army and in 1812 a mass trial in York at which many were sentenced to death or transportation,
Although short lived the movement is indicative of the rising tide of English working class discontent in the early 19th century.
The “Swing Riots”
The Agricultural variant of the Luddite movement may be seen in the “Swing Riots”
In the autumn of 1830 unrest among farm workers erupted in a series of violent protests across southern and eastern England. Threshing machines were attacked and hayricks burnt. During the years 1830 and 1831 over 700 incidents were recorded. Greedy and unpopular employers were sent letters ordering them to provide better wages and conditions for their workers, the letters were signed by the fictitious “Captain Swing”. Some farmers were compelled to maintain a reasonable wage level due to these activities although they were certainly unpopular with their peers for doing so. It may perhaps be said that it is unfortunate that Swing did not exist, if he had the protests may have been better organised rather than the relatively random acts that took place and so may have been more effective in achieving their goals.
The response to the incidents was however very severe. The belief of the ruling classes was that good behaviour among the masses could only be ensured by the threat of horrendous punishments, 250 were sentenced to death, most had their sentence reduced to imprisonment or transportation, but 9 people were executed, this number included a 12 year old boy, and over 1000 were jailed or transported for their part in the riots. Even given the fear and distrust of the working classes by their supposed intellectual and moral superiors (which in many cases merely meant richer and better fed) the figures are staggering. The men and boys involved in the incidents were for the most part honest, hardworking citizens who were driven to desperate measures by the intransigence of those willing to watch their workers and their children slowly starve to death. In fact many of those convicted had done no more than attend a meeting of like minded individuals. The peasants’ revolt had been put down but the cause of the unrest had not been dealt with.
Friendly Societies
During the medieval period the Guilds provided organisation for tradesmen and artisans. Part of their function was to help provide mutual aid for the Guild members and their families in time of difficulty. They also sought to control wages and production levels and set the level of skills of their crafts.
When the unskilled masses sought similar protection they looked to the Friendly Societies for aid. Members would make small weekly or monthly contributions into a fund to help to provide financial support in time of sickness or to provide funeral benefits. These societies started in the late 17th century but saw a huge expansion in the 19th century when more and more unskilled workers gained employment in the mills and factories of post industrial revolution Britain.
The origin of the British trade union can therefore be seen in both of these organisations and it can be argued that they the result of an amalgamation of them both.
Tolpuddle
The area around Tolpuddle had been involved in the “Swing” incidents and this was to be a factor in the treatment of 6 tolpuddle men. At the time Tolpuddle was a small village in Dorset and no different from many others in the county, it was however, the home of George Loveless who history tells us was the leader of those 6 men who were to become known as the Tolpuddle Martyrs.
George Loveless was an intelligent man who had taught himself to read and write and had gained a sufficient standard of education and of theology to become a Methodist lay preacher. He was dismayed that no matter how hard he worked he was decreasingly able to support his family on his wages. Acting in a dishonest or illegal manner would not have been acceptable to him but he decided that this situation was unfair and unjust and that something had to be done about it. It is believed that George sought advice from one of the Friendly Societies and he and the other 5 men formed a union of their own in order to petition their employer for better pay and took an oath not to betray each other.
This was not the formation of a trade union in the modern sense but I believe the events that followed and the consequent public response led to the formation of the modern trade union movement.
The Tolpuddle men were eventually arrested and convicted of administering an unlawful oath. Being a member of a trade union was legal at this time so the magistrates (who had a vested interest in seeing an example being made of these men) convicted them using an archaic piece of naval law and they were sentenced to 7 years transportation to Australia. It is in the actions that took place in Britain to secure their release that we see the birth of effective trade union organisation.
The Action of The New Unions
The fledgling unions were quick to realise that the transportation of the “Tolpuddle Martyrs” was a direct attack on them and started to organise actions to bring about the men’s release.
Petitions were raised and meetings and demonstrations took place throughout the country. At the largest of these in 1834 up to 100,000 supporters marched through London to deliver a petition demanding the release of the 6 farm labourers from Dorset.
Eventually the government bowed to pressure and on 14th March 1836 it was agreed that the men would receive a full and free pardon.
It is within this process that we see the types of action still in use today by trade unions around the world. Mass demonstrations, petitions (although we are likely to use e-mail to gather signatures), political support being sought from M.P’s, etc. are all tools we would expect to see today. I can only look back in admiration at the skills of those early unionists who almost 200 years ago were able to raise such a high level of support and stir up such public outcry. It is indeed unfortunate that so little record remains of their speeches and letters.
Trade unions grew up in Europe and America from the mid 1800’s to the present day on broadly similar lines.
The Situation Today
Here in the United Kingdom today we enjoy legal protection from persecution on grounds of trade union membership and activity. Some of this protection dates back to the 1870’s and the influence of that early work done following the Tolpuddle incident cannot be ignored. Although every year cases arise of disregard of this protection which are then usually dealt with successfully by the unions and the courts, we are free to express ourselves and to take action without fear of reprisal or physical harm to ourselves and our families. Although here in Britain the catering company Gate Gourmet dismissed 670 trade unionists for taking industrial action. American giant WalMart have also offered financial inducements to UK employees to leave the union. Is this the case for our trade union brothers and sisters around the world? Globally it is true that most democratic countries offer protection of the rights of individuals to belong to a union, however, in all too many parts of the world there are horrendous human rights violations taking place every day against trade union activists.
According to data provided by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) in 2002,
10,000 unionists were sacked
4,000 unionists were arrested
1,000 unionists were injured
Over 200 unionists were killed.
These figures would seem to indicate that globally unions are under attack and membership is being discouraged in many parts of the world by unscrupulous employers often with the backing (albeit covertly in most cases) of their governments.
The European Situation
Across Central and Eastern Europe resistance to the formation of independent trade unions has been a common trend among both employers and the State. In Poland the ICTFU reported at least 7 cases of workers being intimidated until they left the union in 2006.
Coca Cola appears to have carried out some of more serious violations. Union members at the St. Petersburg branch faced unjustified reprimands, insults, threats of dismissal and obstruction of collective bargaining. At the Coca Cola plant in Volzhsky workers were subjected to anti-union harassment and told they would lose their jobs if they joined the union.
Turkey saw the violent repression of a demonstration of the teachers union with 10 arrests and 17 injured. The metal workers union saw 164 members dismissed and 275 forced to resign, while 50 oil workers union members were unfairly dismissed.
In the Russian Federation a trade unionist who had received death threats died when his house caught fire.
Attempts to move away from collective bargaining are becoming increasingly common throughout European employers.
Asia and the Pacific
In many countries in this region the process of taking strike action is so cumbersome that most strikes in the region are technically illegal.
Hundreds of striking workers were injured in Bangladesh when police attacked workers in 3 separate incidents. They were protesting at management ill treatment which included physical violence.
Police intervention in India led to 300 trade unionists being seriously injured.
Cambodia, South Korea and the Philippines saw workers, union leaders and activists injured with impunity in police actions.
Deaths of unionists occurred in Bangladesh, South Korea and the Philippines. In the Philippines Diosdado Fortuna, leader of the food and drug industry union was shot dead, Victoria Ramonte of the Andres Soriano College Employees union was stabbed to death,
Ricardo Ramos, President of the Sugar Workers Union was shot and killed and the local union president of a transport group also died at the hands of gunmen.
Women are frequently the target of anti-union activity in the region, this is due in main to the fact that many of the employees in the electronics, textiles, public sector and education are women.
Dozens of activists jailed in China in previous years are still incarcerated.
The government of Australia has shown itself to be one of the severely anti-union in the industrialised world. It has introduced legislation to restrict trade union organising and rights to collective bargaining. These laws gave employers powers to push workers into individual contracts and also removed their protection from unfair dismissal in many cases.
Africa
In several African countries no unions are allowed in the public and civil services, another problem is the difficulty of taking part in legal industrial action. The repression of the right to strike has led to fatalities on 3 occasions.
In South Africa strikes and protests have been broken up using stun guns, tear gas and rubber bullets. Unsurprisingly this has led to many injuries and deaths, ironically one of these occurred at a protest at the arrests and beatings that had taken place at earlier protests.
In the Nigerian oil industry 170 workers were dismissed for asking for better working conditions and the General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress had his passport seized as he tried to board a plane to attend the International Labour Organisation (ILO) conference in Switzerland.
The leaders of the Zimbabwe Confederation of Trade Unions have received death threats, several faced physical attacks and many were arrested. A teacher’s union leader was tortured and other protesters badly beaten.
No independent trade unions are permitted in Sudan, Egypt or Libya.
The Middle East
This is an area of great unrest and turmoil, where the imprisonment and deaths of union activists has become an almost common occurrence to the horror of people around the world. In Iraq in 2006 there were several assassinations of union leaders along with some unsuccessful assassination attempts and at least 2 kidnappings. One union, the Union of Mechanics, Printing and Metalworkers, reported the deaths of at least 10 of its members.
Most recently in Iran the world became aware of the execution of Farzad Kamanger, a Kurdish teacher and trade unionist, imprisoned, beaten and convicted in a farcical trial where the courts “lost” his notes at the appeal hearing.
Despite global condemnation of the treatment he and fellow unionists received at the hands of the Iranian government Farzad was executed in May 2010.
On a brighter note, Qatar followed the example set by Bahrain and adopted a labour code which allows for the formation of independent trade unions but this law still falls below international labour standards. In Bahrain itself a law was passed to restrict legal strike action.
Due to the continued security issues in Israel and Palestine, it is very difficult for the Palestinian trade unions to carry out their normal duties.
There are no trade union rights in Saudi Arabia or Oman, the law there does not recognise the right to form trade unions.
The Americas
In the “land of the free” U.S. governments are very anti-union. Union busting is rife with concerted efforts being made at many employers to reduce and eliminate trade union membership.
In Canada the WalMart supermarket chain, smarting from the success of its workers in Jonquiere Quebec, in setting up the first WalMart employees union in North America, promptly closed the store. Elsewhere WalMart use intimidation, electronic spying and other measures to discourage the setting up of unions at its other branches.
In Colombia in 2006 at least 70 people were killed for their trade union activities and at least a further 260 received death threats. This was a significant decrease in deaths of activists but the alarming fact remains that trade unionists are being targeted by armed groups with impunity. Violence against women trade unionists steadily increased throughout 2006 and it is with good reason that people in the area say that to become a trade union activist is “to walk around with your tombstone on your back”. No words can adequately express the admiration trade unionists around the world should feel towards these brave men and women.
There have also been union members killed in Brazil and Honduras where Francisco Cruz Galeano of the National Trade Union Centre was shot 25 times.
Death threats remain a common occurrence in many South American countries.
In Ecuador members of the banana workers unions face many problems. At the San Jose plantation 44 workers were dismissed for forming a union and overall in 2006 a further 250 workers lost their jobs for trying to form a union and requesting collective bargaining.
In Peru a telecommunications company sacked 23 union members shortly after the union was formed and threatened others with dismissal and transferred others to lower paid jobs. Very similar tactics were used by 2 soft drinks multinational companies.
Some Mexican union members told the ICFTU that in the garments industry organising had to be carried out without the employer’s knowledge.
What Can Be Done?
I believe that if we could muster support of the levels seen in the 1830’s international pressure would lead to improvements of the rights and treatment of trade unionists worldwide. Many campaigns have been launched via the internet but perhaps because computers are impersonal they are not as effective as the massed marches of old.
Has our relatively comfortable existence made us apathetic to the suffering and problems of others or is it simply a case of our ignorance because these matters are not news worthy enough to receive prime time coverage? It could be that the legacy of the Thatcher years and the anti-union spin of the governments and media have left the average citizen cold to the suffering of workers in other parts of the globe. Very few people seem to be aware of the working conditions of their fellow human beings who provide us with the goods we crave in our consumer society. Some good work has been done by the makers of television documentaries highlighting the plight of sweat shop workers. It is unfortunate that these were not given more coverage in the press or shown on the main channels in place of the escapist soap operas.
By writing to our local politicians and raising their awareness of the strength of feeling about these issues we can push them to discuss the problems at government level. Ultimately public knowledge of the issues, brought to bear on local, national and global governments to change legislation and to influence employers will eventually change the situation.
The formation of global unions such as the partnership between the UK union Unite and the US Teamsters union may be able to help bring pressure to bear on the governments of the world to pass legislation to improve and to protect the rights of fellow trade unionists, but pressure must also be brought to bear by individuals who are prepared to speak out against injustice and to show at least some of the courage and determination shown by our forefathers and those still fighting to establish and defend their rights.
Books and other sources:
Fraser Hamish W. (1999) A History Of British Trade Unionism 1700-1998 Macmillan Press
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions 2006 Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights www.ifftu.org
BBC News www.bbc.co.uk
Tolpuddle Martyrs Museum www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk
Logan John. U.S. Anti Union Consultants: A Threat to the Rights of British Workers T.U.C
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