"Chicago railroad strike of 1877 The Chicago railroad strike of 1877 was a series of work stoppages and civil unrest in Chicago, Illinois, which occurred as part of the larger national strikes and rioting of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. Meetings of working men in Chicago on July 26 led to workers from a number of industries striking on the following morning, and over the next few days, large crowds gathered throughout the city, resulting in violent clashes with police. By the time order was restored on the evening of July 26, 14 to 30 rioters were dead or"
"but had just come out into his back garden when he heard the commotion. In his report Major Stuart claimed his soldiers were firing warning shots, and were unaware of the men when they did so, but other witnesses claim they were deliberately targeted. The troops action sparked not only the strikers, but also other residents of Llanelli into a day of widespread disorder and rioting. One man was killed when he attempted to use dynamite to open an armoured freight carriage, unaware that the cargo was munitions, resulting in a massive explosion. On the following day three more innocent"
"and northeast England, the latter also witnessing a sustained railway workers' strike. In 1911 the National Transport Workers' Federation organized the first nationwide railway workers' strike, along with a general dockworker's strike in ports throughout the country. In Liverpool, the summertime strikes of the dock and transport workers culminated in a series of conflicts with the authorities between the 13th and 15 August, leading to the death of two men and over 350 injured. In 1912 the National coal strike and another wave of transportation strikes cost the British economy an estimated 40 million working days. The major demands of"
"some accepted lower wages and carried on working. The dispute came to a head on 3 September 1787: when violence erupted after some striking weavers tried to seize materials from weavers who had carried on working. The military were called in and a detachment of the 39th Regiment of Foot opened fire on the demonstrators. Six of the men killed at the scene were locally called 'martyrs' and some of them were buried in the Calton Cemetery off the main London Road. The families of the men could not afford a headstone although, a century later, a memorial was raised"
"investors. In September 1911 the workers of the Great Southern and Western Railway went on strike nationally after two checkers at Kingsbridge goods station in Dublin were suspended for refusing to handle timber that had been delivered by ""blackleg"" lorry drivers during a strike by the timber merchant's workers. The British Army was brought in to guard tracks and trains, and Protestant strike-breakers from elsewhere in Ireland to do the work of the strikers. The strike was savagely broken in two months, with the railway's proprietor, William Goulding, sacking 10% of the workers for their participation in the strike. Goulding"
"six children. He was found guilty of ""forming illegal combinations"" and was sentenced to be publicly whipped through the streets of the city at the hands of the Common Executioner, and then to banish himself from Scotland for seven years. James Granger later returned and took part in the 1811-1812 strike. He lived to the age of 75. Calton weavers strike The Calton weavers strike of 1787 was the earliest major industrial dispute in Scottish history, when troops fired on demonstrators, killing six. The Calton weavers became Scotland's first working-class martyrs. Ultimately the strike contributed to a workers movement which"
"enabling greater advocacy for the interests of the working classes as a whole. Inflation and stagnating wages began in 1908, which precipitated greater discontent among the working classes, particularly as the prosperity enjoyed by the middle and upper classes was becoming ever more visible. In that year, strikes increased precipitously, mainly in the cotton and shipbuilding industries where job-cuts had occurred. In 1910, with unemployment reaching a record-low of 3 percent, unions were emboldened by their bargaining power to make demands for higher wages and job stability. Strikes erupted throughout the nation - in the coal mining country of Wales"
"Blanketeers The Blanketeers or Blanket March was a demonstration organised in Manchester in March 1817. The intention was for the participants, who were mainly Lancashire weavers, to march to London and petition the Prince Regent over the desperate state of the textile industry in Lancashire, and to protest over the recent suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act. The march was broken up violently and its leaders imprisoned. The Blanketeers formed part of a series of protests and calls for reform that culminated in the Peterloo massacre and the Six Acts. England suffered economic hardship in the years immediately following the"
"The MFGB participated in the 1906 Royal Commission on mines' safety and by 1908 had secured an eight-hour day for underground workers. Improving miners' working conditions was important to the federation and Robert Smillie represented it in the Royal Commission on mines' safety that led to the Mines' Regulation Act in 1911. A lock out in 1910 by Cambrian Collieries in South Wales in a dispute about wage cuts led to a ten-month-long strike by 12,000 men. Home Secretary, Winston Churchill, sent troops to Tonypandy where they charged a group of striking miners with fixed bayonets on 21 November. The"
"which caused much resentment. The Bromsgrove nailers continued to pay into the strike fund, however. The poor working conditions prompted a Parliamentary investigation and report in 1888. Shortly after, a final 16 week strike in 1891-2 was supported by the ""Sunday Chronicle"" who paid £100 into the strike fund, and the chainmakers of Brierley Hill contributed a further £25. Events were organised and a soup kitchen provided, alongside strike pay. The nailmasters offered increased prices of 20% and eventually agreed 30-40%, however, the increased rates may have hastened the demise of the industry. The industry featured in Robert Sherard's book"
"Group called Joseph ""off his head"" and Thatcher said his comments were ""too sharp"". Grunwick dispute The Grunwick dispute was an industrial dispute involving trade union recognition at the Grunwick Film Processing Laboratories in Chapter Road, Dollis Hill, Willesden, London, United Kingdom, that led to a two-year strike between 1976 and 1978. During a decade of industrial unrest, the Grunwick dispute became a cause célèbre of trade unionism and labour relations law, and ""at its height involved thousands of Trade Unionists and police in confrontations, ...over 500 arrests on the picket line and frequent police violence."" The total of 550"
"workforce at Penyrorsedd reached 450. Slate production in Wales peaked at over half a million tons in 1898, with 17,000 men employed in the industry. A second lock-out or strike at the Penrhyn Quarry began on 22 November 1900 and lasted for three years. The causes of the dispute were complex, but included the extension of a system of contracting out parts of the quarry. The quarrymen, instead of arranging their own bargains, would find themselves working for a contractor. The union's funds for strike pay were inadequate, and there was a great deal of hardship among the 2,800 workers."
"Grunwick dispute The Grunwick dispute was an industrial dispute involving trade union recognition at the Grunwick Film Processing Laboratories in Chapter Road, Dollis Hill, Willesden, London, United Kingdom, that led to a two-year strike between 1976 and 1978. During a decade of industrial unrest, the Grunwick dispute became a cause célèbre of trade unionism and labour relations law, and ""at its height involved thousands of Trade Unionists and police in confrontations, ...over 500 arrests on the picket line and frequent police violence."" The total of 550 arrests made during the strike was at the time the highest such figure in"
"the ensuing disturbances, troops were called in to keep the peace and three of the weavers were killed. There was continued unrest. In Manchester in May 1808, 15,000 protesters gathered on St George's Fields and were fired on by dragoons, with one man dying. A strike followed, but was eventually settled by a small wage increase. In the general strike of 1842, half a million workers demanded the Charter and an end to pay cuts. Again, troops were called in to keep the peace, and the strike leaders were arrested, but some of the worker demands were met. The early"
"Calton weavers strike The Calton weavers strike of 1787 was the earliest major industrial dispute in Scottish history, when troops fired on demonstrators, killing six. The Calton weavers became Scotland's first working-class martyrs. Ultimately the strike contributed to a workers movement which achieved fundamental changes in the relationship between workforce and employers. The Calton Weavers massacre of 1787 is commemorated in a panel by Scottish artist Ken Currie in the People's Palace, Glasgow, commissioned on the 200th anniversary of the event. Calton at the time of the strike was a handweaving community just outside Glasgow in Scotland. At the peak"
"death. Skilled weavers lost their livelihoods when production moved from a domestic system to new manufactories causing severe hardship and unrest among the workers. Unemployed weavers joined the Luddites believing their only hope was to destroy the machines. The government repressed rebellion by punishing offenders severely. In 1812 Luddite disorder around Manchester reached its peak. On Friday 28 April, a large crowd of weavers and mechanics gathered in Westhoughton with the intention of destroying the power looms in Rowe and Dunscough's Mill. The Scots Greys, deployed in Bolton by the government to quell unrest, were sent for but all was"
"of the framework knitting industry in the 19th century. It was the site of the first framebreaking incidents of the Luddite riots, on 11 March 1811, when 63 frames were smashed. The Luddite riots were a response by workers to decreasing pay, standard of living and conditions of employment in the industry as a result of changing fashions decreasing demand for their style of hosiery. Arnot Hill House in Daybrook was the home of the Hawksleys, a prominent family of maltsters. John Hawksley and Mary Whittle lived there, and it was the birthplace of Thomas Hawksley. John Hawksley and his"
".. affording considerable employment in Llanidloes."" But the new technology was far from profitable, and the factory system led to increasing unrest, which culminated in the Chartist riots in 1839. Newtown, connected to the Montgomeryshire Canal in 1819, soon became the centre of the flannel industry in Wales with the opening of its Flannel Exchange in 1832. Llanidloes followed suit in 1838 when former Public Rooms in Great Oak Street were built by a local consortium as a Flannel Exchange; but this only lasted a few years, although Llanidloes flannel was regarded as of the better quality. Some owners, particularly"
"birthplace of the modern trade union movement when, in 1834, six farm labourers formed a union to protest against falling wages. The labourers, who are now known as the Tolpuddle Martyrs, were subsequently arrested for administering ""unlawful oaths"" and sentenced to transportation but they were pardoned following massive protests by the working classes. The Dorsetshire Regiment were the first British unit to face a gas attack during the First World War (1914–1918) and they sustained particularly heavy losses at the Battle of the Somme. In total some 4,500 Dorset servicemen died in the war and of the county's towns and"
"La Canadiense strike The ""La Canadiense"" strike (Catalan: ""Vaga de La Canadenca"", Spanish: ""Huelga de La Canadiense"") was a historic strike action in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that began in February 1919 and evolved over forty-four days into a general strike paralyzing much of the industry of Catalonia. Among its consequences was to force the Spanish government to issue the ""Decreto de la jornada de ocho horas de trabajo,"" the first law limiting the working day to eight hours. The strike originated at the principal electricity company in Barcelona, ""Riegos y Fuerzas del Ebro"", popularly known as ""La Canadiense"" because its"
"was organizing for the IWW by the time the Lawrence Textile Strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts garnered national attention. On January 11, 1912, textile mill workers in Lawrence left their jobs in protest of lowered wages. Within a week, twenty thousand workers were on strike. The IWW already had a presence in Lawrence and assumed leadership of the strike. Authorities responded by calling out police, and the strike quickly escalated into violence. Local IWW leaders Joseph Ettor and Arturo Giovannitti were jailed on charges of murdering Anna LoPizzo, a striker whom nineteen witnesses later said was killed by police gunfire, and"
"continued to work at the old rate, and making bonfires in the street from the contents of warehouses. On 3 September the city magistrates, with a force of officers, went to the Calton but were driven back by the mob. A detachment of the 39th Regiment marched, and a pitched battle occurred at Parkhouse, in Duke Street. The Riot Act was read, and a volley of musket fire killed three of the weavers and injured others. Further disturbances were quickly suppressed by the troops. This was the earliest major industrial dispute in Scottish history. The Calton Weavers became Scotland's first"
"materials had affected engineering companies like the Butterley Company, the price of iron ore had slumped, and the production of coal had fallen by a third. The hosiery trade had also been falling away for about five years. There was, in addition, a wider political picture. Since the previous century, there had been calls for parliamentary reform, particularly an end to the rotten boroughs. Subsequently there had been the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror and it appeared that any reform would be accompanied by violence, which Pitt's government set out to pre-empt by increasingly punitive measures. Since 1811,"
"the practice of ""pistolerismo"" (employing thugs to intimidate active unionists), causing a spiral of violence which significantly affected the trade union. These ""pistoleros"" were known to have killed 21 union leaders in 48 hours. The CNT had an outstanding role in the events of the ""La Canadiense"" general strike, which paralyzed 70% of industry in Catalonia in 1919, the year the CNT reached a membership of 700,000. The Government settled the strike by granting all the striking workers demands that included an eight-hour day, union recognition, and the rehiring of fired workers. In 1922 the International Workingmen's Association (later International"
"activists such as James Larkin and James Connolly began to organize Trade Unions on syndicalist principles. Belfast saw a bitter strike (by dockers organized by Larkin) in 1907 in which 10,000 workers went on strike and the police mutinied – a rare instance of non-sectarian mobilization in Ulster. In Dublin, there was an even more vicious dispute – the Dublin Lockout of 1913 – in which over 20,000 workers were fired for belonging to Larkin's Union. Three people died in the rioting that accompanied the lock-out and many more were injured. However, the labor movement was split into nationalist lines."
"major shareholder was the Canadian Bank of Commerce of Toronto. La Canadiense strike The ""La Canadiense"" strike (Catalan: ""Vaga de La Canadenca"", Spanish: ""Huelga de La Canadiense"") was a historic strike action in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that began in February 1919 and evolved over forty-four days into a general strike paralyzing much of the industry of Catalonia. Among its consequences was to force the Spanish government to issue the ""Decreto de la jornada de ocho horas de trabajo,"" the first law limiting the working day to eight hours. The strike originated at the principal electricity company in Barcelona, ""Riegos y"
"movement began in 1811. The Luddites rapidly gained popularity, and the British government took drastic measures, using the militia or army to protect industry. Those rioters who were caught were tried and hanged, or transported for life. Unrest continued in other sectors as they industrialised, such as with agricultural labourers in the 1830s when large parts of southern Britain were affected by the Captain Swing disturbances. Threshing machines were a particular target, and hayrick burning was a popular activity. However, the riots led to the first formation of trade unions, and further pressure for reform. The traditional centers of hand"
"The organisation was renamed the Mineworkers Federation of Great Britain in 1932, reflecting the creation of groups for enginemen, firemen, electricians and other workers in the industry. The MFGB joined the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in 1890. In 1893, 300,000 colliery workers were locked out when the mine owners demanded they take a 25% cut in pay. Six weeks into the dispute, two men were killed at a colliery in Featherstone in Yorkshire after the Riot Act had been read and soldiers opened fire on the assembled men. The strike ended nine weeks later after the mine owners backed down."
"strikers returned to work defeated but a conference in 1911 called for a minimum wage. The demand led to the six-week-long National coal strike of 1912 in which more than one million miners participated. The onset of World War I in 1914 led to calls for the repeal of the eight-hour day and increased productivity. South Wales miners struck in 1915 and increased pay was demanded in 1916 resulting in the coalfields being put into state control. In 1914 the MFGB had joined with the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) and the National Transport Workers' Federation (NTWF) in the Triple"
"including food. The mobilisation of unionists from Bundaberg to Mossman was a major achievement, with the 1911 strike lasting over seven weeks in Bundaberg where the town's economy was largely based on the sugar industry. The end result of the strike was a Commonwealth Royal Commission into the sugar industry in 1911–12, which had been initially requested by Harry Hall, a Bundaberg AWA organiser in 1908 with a petition signed by 1500 Bundaberg sugar workers. The Royal Commission, with ALF Secretary Albert Hinchcliffe as secretary, concluded the AWA demands had been justified. The union victory was a watershed in organised"
"Embargo strike The Embargo strike of July 1918, centered in industrial areas of Coventry and Birmingham in England, among munitions workers, involving 15000 or more men, was not an ordinary dispute with employers, but an organized attempt to force the British government to cancel a particular embargo, which was an order passed by the Ministry of Munitions forbidding four manufacturing forms in Coventry from hiring additional skilled men without Ministry approval. This was to distribute scarce skilled labor more fairly. This caused controversy, and on 23 July 2018 12000 members of the Amalgamated Engineering Union and the Tool-makers, and the"
"locked out some trade unionists on 19 August 1913. On 25 August, in response, Larkin called an all-out tramway strike on Murphy's Dublin United Tramway Company. Other companies, encouraged by Murphy, sacked ITGWU members in an effort to break the union. The conflict eventually escalated to involve 400 employers and 25,000 workers. ""Larkinism"" prompted the recruitment of a workers' militia. However, Larkin was arrested by strikebreakers in October; James Connolly, his deputy, took control for the duration of the lockout, announcing a call to arms of four battalions of trained men with corporals and sergeants. This strike caused most of"
"of unemployment: according to figures published in March 1826, some 60% of all handloom weavers in Blackburn and Rishton, Lower Darwen and Oswaldtwistle were unemployed. High unemployment led to the Lancashire weavers' riots. At 3:00 pm on 24 April 1826 a mob arrived in Blackburn after attacking powerlooms in Accrington. Proceeding to Bannister Eccles' Jubilee Factory on Jubilee Street, the mob destroyed 212 powerlooms in the space of 35 minutes. They then turned their attention to John Houghton and Sons' Park Place factory, located nearby, and destroyed another 25 looms, before seeking more machinery to attack. The crowd began to"