The Rise of New Labor Unions in the UK - Socialists, Union Leaders and Strikes

In the later half of the nineteenth century in the United Kingdom, new labor unions was founded by the Socialist movement. It made working class solidarity a reality. Moreover, it was a revolutionary idea uniting unskilled workers together. These workers only strength was in their numbers and their ability to stick together. The Gas Workers� Strike led by William Thorne was the most successful because it inspired more workers to rise up against their employer�s oppression. Yet, its success was overshadowed by the Great Dockers Strike which gave new hope to the Socialist movement because this strike received more publicity than any other strike at this time. In addition, the success of these new labor unions gave hope to the working class and transformed the labor movement from an elite few to encompass the entire working class throughout Britain and the world. This eventually led to the establishment of a political labor movement which worked to make laws to protect workers from unsafe and unhealthy working conditions. By using his life experience in the workforce, William Thorne, as a labor organizer, was instrumental in bringing about the changes necessary in the workplace to make a better life for the working class.

William Thorne, like most union organizers, was born into poverty. He worked his first job when he was six years old to help his family. His mother worked over sixteen hours a day any work she could get[1]. His father worked as a brick maker in the summer and in the winter worked in the gas works as a stoker. [2] He was a drunk and died from injuries received in a brawl when Thorne was seven. Despite the long hours his mother worked and the long hours Thorne worked, the family was still so poor that they were able to receive some relief from the Poor Law office where Thorne collected four bad loaves of bread and four shillings a week. [3] It was not enough to keep hunger at bay. Growing up poor had a profound effect on Thorne. He believed that the unions would eventually end poverty.[4] Organizing became a holy mission for him as it was for other Socialist union organizers. Moreover, beginning work at age six and enduring terrible work conditions, Thorne �swore that I would do everything in my power to help prevent other children going through the same hardships, misery, and suffering that I had to go through.� [5] He also felt that companies were indirectly responsible for union organization by their slave driving methods of working their help. It forced the worker to seek justice and respite. [6]

Thorne worked many jobs, never settling down to one job for long. Employers tried to cheat him most of the time or didn�t pay Thorne what he considered a fair rate. So, he just quit. In his autobiography, Thorne called it his first strikes. It was common in the late nineteenth century to negotiate a pay rate before the work was performed. There was no minimum wage. Moreover, employers often cheated the worker by paying less than the agreed upon rate. Thorne wrote, �I would like to say that just the fear I had of a fair rate for piecework being lowered when extra effort is made by a workman is the fear born of experience that still exists among all workmen.� [7] On the other hand, Thorne was not afraid of unemployment. He was once fired from a job for not accepting a lower pay rate than another employee received for the same job. Instead of grieving, Thorne remarked, �I went, glad to be away from the grimy, noisy works, its heat and heavy labour. I always had hoped that there were better jobs and better things in the future, and it was with no regret that I left what was to me a little hell on earth.�[8]  One of the biggest problems noted by Thorne in organizing workers was the worker�s fear of unemployment. Most workers were grateful for the little pay they did received because they were often on the brink of starvation. Therefore, the employer held the upper hand in negotiating pay rates and showed little apathy towards the plight of the workers. [9] Things began to change in the late 1880�s, when the economy boomed. Thorne learned from experience when the right time was to strike. After a strike at a munitions factory ended favorably, Thorne noted for future reference, �The firm was pressed for orders-Germans and French both wanted cartridges, and were paying well for them. The firm gave in and the advance in wages was granted. This was one of my earliest lessons in the law of supply and demand. "[10] Thus, when the economy boomed, workers had the greatest leverage and unions thrived. [11] Likewise, when the economy plummeted, union members disappeared too.

While working at the Gas Works Company in Birmingham, Thorne agitated his fellow employees by trying to convince them that they needed and deserved a Sunday off. The workers finally agreed to unite if Thorne would be their spokesman. The workers had not the courage as of yet to form a union. The lack of courage and the sheer ignorance of the work force was one of the biggest obstacles union organizers had to overcome. [12] �Labour leaders can testify that often their hardest work is not in fighting the employers, but in driving the fear out of their own men. They will tell you, also, that their hardest kicks and greatest abuse come from those they are trying to help and serve.�[13]However, Thorne went to the foreman and presented his case anyway. The foreman argued back that it would be impossible to achieve. However, Thorne convinced the foreman to talk to the chief engineer. After many negotiations with higher ups, the mayor and the gas committee, Sunday was designated a day off. It was soon afterwards, Thorne began agitating for the eight hour work day.[14]  He risked his job because a worker could be fired for agitating unrest among his fellow workers. In addition, Thorne could have been black listed and unable to get a job elsewhere for union agitating. He also could have been harassed or possibly beaten by the police who were bribed by company owners to do so. Despite Thorne�s risks and efforts, the eight hour day was not won until the Gas Works finally formed a union.

Thorne believed that the unions� goal should focus on winning the eight hour day first. After gaining this milestone, then everything else would fall into place. According to Thorne, the eight hour day would be the biggest improvement to workers conditions. The worker would live a healthier longer life because he would not be so worn out from physical labor. He would have time to rest and would not be exposed as long to the hazardous working conditions such as fumes, extreme heat, steam, chemicals and so forth. It would give the worker time to heal somewhat. Another benefit of the eight hour day would be less unemployment because employers would have to fill the hours with additional workers. Thus the workers� labor became more valuable to the employer and the union would gain strength by gaining more members.[15] Therefore, as the leader of his union, Thorne would not spend the funds collected from the union members for unemployment, health or burial insurance. He felt the money best used as strike pay so strikers would not cave to employers� pressures so easily.[16] Thorne was able to win the eight hour day for other companies, too. It was always first on the table in contract negotiations before any other grievances. However, he felt that the eight hour day would not be won completely for the working class until it became an act of Parliament. [17] The significance of the Gas Workers� Union winning the eight hour day and Sundays off was that it gave other unskilled workers in other industries hope and the courage to form unions in order to rectify long standing grievances and gain better wages.

The Gas Workers Union organized across all the Gas Works Companies and demonstrated solidarity. No one accepted an offer from the company unless all agreed.[18] It was the only way to win a strike. If strikers showed weakness then the strike could go on longer or worse they�d lose. All would be wasted effort. After Thorne won these battles, he headed for London to replicate his labor winnings there at the London Gas Works companies.

Thorne had a knack for negotiating which he proved in the Gas Workers� strike. The success of the strike earned Thorne a reputation for getting results around town. One day, Thorne was approached by shop assistants from a tea company and asked if he help them shorten hours and increase their pay. Thorne approached the shop assistants� manager and convinced him that it would be in the shop�s best interest to treat their employees better. Afterwards, Thorne took an interest in organizing the shop assistants into a union.[19]

The news of Gas Workers Union success of achieving the eight hour work day spread throughout the working class and many workers became encouraged to improve their lot throughout Britain and Europe. [20] Yet, the impact was most significant on the Dockers. It was partly due to the many Gas Workers that worked on the Docks when they were laid off in the winter months. These workers had associates on the docks whom they shared a beer and ideas with at local taverns or on the street. Since the Gas Workers worked part time on the docks, they had a personal interest in improving the conditions on the docks as well. Therefore, it was natural for these Gas Workers to encourage the Dockers to form a union and strike if necessary to rectify grievances.[21] A few of the Dock workers approached Thorne on joining the Gas Workers Union and let that union representative (Thorne) speak for them. Thorne told them quickly that Ben Tillet had already formed a small union for the Dockers, they had only to join.[22]

 It was August of 1889 in the East End of London at the docks. Potential workers started gathering for a chance to work that day. They knew at the call on they would have to fight in an iron cage with every person who showed up that morning for work, possibly three or four hundred tough, determined men.[23] A few of them, most likely would not survive the day. Ears would be torn off, flesh ripped, men crushed to death as they dropped but hunger was their main driving force. Their families were on the brink of starvation. [24] Most often the cage match was held for the prize of three or so jobs. However, today something was different. There were two men talking about the inhumanity of the call on and the other terrible conditions the Dock workers were forced to endure, urging the workers to join the union. These two men were Tom Mann and William Thorne who belonged to the Socialist party. They appealed to the workers to join the union and then refuse to go to work. The workers stopped and listened, then signed up. Soon, the men started leading the workers in a march to other docks throughout London, gathering more supporters as they went.[25] This day marked the beginning of the Great Dockers� Strike of 1889.

On the day the Great Dockers� Strike began, Will Thorne helped Ben Tillet and Tom Mann organize. It was a big project. Over thirty to forty thousand dock workers joined in the strike. There were problems with the strike from the start. The biggest problem was that there were no funds. Next, the men joining the union did not stick together, case in point, the cage match. Then, too, the men had no discipline. Initially, the press and the middle class of London supported the strike. They saw it as a humanitarian thing to do. This was partly due to Tillet who had organized massive and orderly demonstrations protesting the inhumane treatment of the dock workers for the purpose of gaining support. Funding for the strike began to run out in August. Moreover, the dock companies did not show any sign of yielding to the striker�s demands. A crisis was about to unfold. In desperation, the leaders called for a general strike of all London workers. This caused protests from the Newspapers and the middle class who had responded earlier favorably because they saw the strike as a consequence of the extreme poverty of the slums. However, the threat was effective enough to make the Mayor of London put pressure on both sides to end the strike. [26]

Engels, a German philosopher who lived in England, followed the Dockers Strike very closely. He had worked with Karl Marx on the Communist Manifesto and wrote the book, The Condition of the English Working Class. He was active in the English Socialist movement and long for when the proletariat would rise up against their oppression. In his letters to a colleague, Engels praised the Great Dockers Strike of 1889 and commented, �How glad I am to have lived to see this day.� He then described the strike as a class struggle, �this gigantic strike of the lowest of the outcasts, the dock labourers � this motley crowd � changing daily � managed to unite ...� He also added that if this section of the proletariat, can unite, it will serve well as an example to all workers.[27] It is probably best that most of the Dockers did not read, because they would have been insulted by Engels description of them. In another letter, Engels confides that he wished Marx had lived to see the Great Strike. He added, �If the Dockers get organized, all other sections will follow � And all this strike is worked and led by our people (Socialists), by Burns and Mann.� [28] This strike received more publicity than any other strike in the world at that time. [29]

In a turn about, an unlikely supporter of the strike, the Reverend William Morris who was the vicar of Saint Anne�s Church in London often spoke to the striking men and their families giving his support. Supporting the strike was a daring thing for the Reverend Morris to do. Due to his sympathetic feelings towards the strikers so prominent in his writings and sermons, Morris was unfrocked from the English Church. However, his inspiration to the strikers earned him enough votes to be elected as a trustee of the union. [30]

Ben Tillet was credited for the organization of the Great Dockers� Strike. Like Thorne, he had worked in factories and elsewhere as an unskilled laborer. Both Tillet and Thorne knew and felt the struggle of the working people to feed their families; the physical hard work and the long hours that drained their health. Therefore, the two could relate to the worker and knew how to rally them. In addition, they had leadership qualities. Moreover, they were not afraid to speak out, nor take chances and fight for injustice. As with Thorne, Tillet made union organizing a holy mission. He, too, grew up in poverty and knew what it was like to be hungry. Tillet knew the weaknesses of the workers and their employers which gave him the insight into when to strike and when to negotiate. [31]

Tillet and Thorne joined the Socialist�s movement early in their careers. Thorne�s secretary was Karl Marx�s daughter, Tussy, who helped him to read and write. She often helped organize workers, too, in the field. Tussy assisted Thorne in the organization of the Gas Workers Union considered by Engels to be the most important union of all, mostly because it had accomplished the most good by inspiring others to unionize. Moreover, Tussy had played a prominent role in getting the Gas Workers to organize women workers. [32] Engels kept in contact with Tussy during the Great Dockers Strike offering advice when the crisis materialized when all the relief funds ran out. He predicted that the threat of a general strike at this point could not be carried out effectively. It would backfire and the Dock companies would win. During the Great Strike, Engels wrote another colleague, that �Tussy had become quite busy organizing Trades Unions and supporting strikes.� In another letter, Engels reveals that �all the leading men and women (of the unions) are Socialists and Socialist agitators too. In them I see the real beginning of the movement here.[33] The Socialist movement provided a network of organizers who could move about where they were needed throughout England and later Ireland and Scotland.[34]  Soon, the new labor unionism spread over all the industrial districts prompting Socialist propaganda which declared that industrialization had degraded the workers and enslaved them. [35]  To which the solution to this problem was unionization because it offered workers emancipation. The new labor unions promised workers improved wages, conditions and to deal with the petty tyranny of their employers. [36]  From these new labor unions, a new political movement came forth called the Labour Party. [37] Although these achievements were great accomplishments, Engels, Thorne and other Socialists felt the unions should organize along the classes rather than trades. Engels criticized the engineers� union members, headed by Jack Burns, another Socialist, for practicing craft exclusiveness. He wrote, �These fools, in order to keep the supply of workers low, have a law that nobody who has not been through the regular period of apprenticeship may be admitted to their union. By this, they have created an army of blacklegs (strikebreakers).�[38]

A network was already in place when the socialists organized the unskilled workers into the new labor unions. Using the network provided, new labor unionism was able to spread quickly throughout the country. This network was established early in the nineteenth century by the skilled workers� unions. These skilled workers had the strong organized trade unions which were made up of artisans and craftsmen. Skilled workers had leverage with their employer because their skills were in demand. To build a more efficient union which could best serve their interests, skilled trade union workers developed a central organized body which shared funds. A relationship was established between trade unions from different towns where information and ideas interchanged freely. To aid workers in finding jobs, houses of call or trade houses were set up across Britain. These houses provided a meal and a place to stay for the unemployed who were looking for work. Therefore, workers gathered here to discuss job prospects. In addition, a traveling system was set up during a strike to remove strikers away from the threat of prosecution. The trade house soon became the central office of the union and would act like a present day unemployment office sending members to fill job vacancies in the area. The relationships between trade societies from town to town helped organized the unions on a national level and eventually led to the pursuit of a political party which became the labour party.[39]

During strikes companies used strikebreakers to work in place of the strikers. Strikebreakers were called blacklegs in England and scabs in the United States. Strikers would form mass picket lines to block the strikebreakers from entering the company. Many strikebreakers got through the picket line with the help of police or soldiers but they suffered injuries and casualties in doing so. During one strike at a Gas Works Company, strikebreakers marched to the works guarded by soldiers and police. Thousands of people gathered on the sidelines forming a gauntlet and pelted the strikebreakers with rotten vegetables, stones and what not. As the strikebreakers reached the main gate of the works, a mass of people rushed in as the gates opened. There was too many for the soldiers could not hold back the crowds. The strikers charged the strikebreakers and beat them unmercifully which prompted the strikebreakers to leave town quickly. Their transportation fares were gladly paid for by the union. As they left, the blacklegs swore they would never cross another picket line again. Churches throughout the community condemn the Gas Works Company for trying to break the union. In the end, the Gas Works Company found they could not operate without their workers and gave in to the union�s demands. Therefore, the strike was a victory for the union. [40]

In the early nineteenth century, artisans, craftsmen and the skilled workers of the United Kingdom organized into trade unions. They had a skill that their employers needed which gave them leverage in negotiating their pay rates, hours and benefits. By the late nineteenth century, the economy was booming. Employers needed workers to make their production schedules. The unskilled worker gained the advantage here. William Thorne learned from his lifetime experience in the working place how to negotiate and when to strike. Thorne gained a solid reputation as one of the best negotiators for the unions. The success of the Gas Workers� Strike, led by Thorne, inspired other unskilled workers to unite and strikes became common place in this era. Although the Great Dockers� Strike of 1889 received more publicity, its overall implementation was only possible because of the encouragement gained by the success of the Gas Worker�s strike that occurred earlier that year. Therefore, the news of the Gas Workers� strike�s success contributed to the rise of the new labor unionism which gave hope and courage to the working class as well as the Socialist movement who instigated the unionization from the start. Moreover, solidarity, a revolutionary idea, became a reality. Using this tactic, workers gained new ground in the war against their oppression and soon thereafter became a strong political entity in the United Kingdom.

Bibliography

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