The Bryant and May match girls and their place in Labour History. The Bryant and May match girls were the girls who worked in the Bryant and May factory making and boxing matchsticks. The girls who worked in the factory went on strike in 1888 because of the dangerous conditions and the unfair treatment of the workers. After three weeks of being on strike the factory owners agreed to meet the demands of the worker, and the strike was successful. The Bryant and May Match girl strike had a significant impact on the labour movement and women's rights. Many girls started working at the factory at only 13 years old and would have to work long and demanding hours for very low wages to be able to provide for their families. These girls lived in horrible …show more content…
The factory responded by attempting to force the girls to sign a contract that stated they were happy with their working conditions. A group of women refused to sing the contract which resulted in the group being fired. This caused 1400 girls who worked at the Bryant and May factory ro go on strike. The Bryant and May factory were not worried at first, they believed the girls would soon return as they needed the money, but they were wrong. The girls refused to go back and stayed on strike for multiple weeks despite not having any income at this time. The girls remained strong in their fight for their …show more content…
After three weeks the Bryant and May match factory announced that it would bring an end to the fines and that they were willing to re-employ the dismissed workers. The match girls accepted these terms and the strike was a success. The Bryant and May match girls strike was the first strike by unorganised workers to gain national publicity, The strike was also successful in helping to inspire the formation of unions all over the country. Soon after, the match girls union decided to change its name to the Matchmakers union, which welcomed both the female and male workers. The first elected TUC representative from the newly formed match makers union was Sarah Chapman. Sarah attended the international TUC with Annie Besant in London, where she was one of only 77 delegates. In 1890 Sarah attended the TUC again, where she was among almost 500 delegates and was one of only 10 women attending. Sarah Chapman is recorded as having seconded a motion in relation to The Truck
“Working Women and the Triangle Fire” by Elizabeth Burt begins by providing detailed information about hard-working, exploited women in the labor force. The article describes previous attempts of women factory workers to organize to protest injustice, and also explains that “the press had sporadically covered these attempts” (Burt 190). Next, the author provides specific examples of the work of journalists who wrote about frustrated women workers, but states that these articles mainly appeared in the women’s sections of newspapers. Workers had the most success by participating in labor actions (Burt 190). The article describes that when the press covered most labor movements, focus was placed on negotiations, violence, or the character of the
Anne Morgan was the daughter of J.P Morgan; she helped keep the strike on the front page of the newspapers and gave the strikers hope. The mink brigade was other wealthy or socially privileged woman who helped the cause of the strikers. With this help the strikers weren’t being brutally beaten as often and by December some factories had given into striker demands. What caused Anne Morgan and mink brigadiers to reconsider their position was the refusal of better pay and fewer work hours, but without union only shops. Anne Morgan and others felt that this was an attack on their social status and way of life, she resigned from the strike union along with others.
Most of them were new immigrants. Young Jewish women from Eastern Europe and Catholic women from Italy. Von Drehle says in his book, “they were underpaid and overworked, but also independent, resolute and freethinking.” They were alone in the city working six long days a week, and sending all the money back home and keeping nothing for themselves. But, just a year earlier, these women had walked out of their jobs, activating a strike that called for better work conditions.
They said they would give higher wages and fewer hours but did not want a union. The strike leaders refused and lost the support of Anne Morgan, who while she agreed that they needed more rights, was entirely against the idea of unions. The strikers left the negotiations with nothing to show for it, and had lost a valuable ally. In February of 1910 the strike ended, some factories had given in to union only shops, but the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was not one of
In addition to this, unions of the time also continued this movement as predominantly male trade unions began to accept female members. (Fieldes, 2013) This left-wing source possesses bias that places disproportionate emphasis on the importance of unionisation, yet still remains relevant. However, this movement towards liberation experienced widespread traditionalist opposition, one such man writing to the Argus, “Would they [women] not be better fitted for jobs too often held by men in the city shops?” (Guthrie, 1941, pg 7) Despite aforementioned opposition, the movement for equal pay and opportunity for women flourished. Women were greatly liberated from previous roles during World War Two as their increased financial equality allowed for greater freedoms, including the foundation of auxiliary
Women fighting back would have destroyed the movement because fighting is viewed as something a man does. What these women were aiming for was to be paid a living wage. They were not aiming to be extra support, but to be fairly compensated for the work they were doing, and making sure the conditions they were put in were ones that would make sure that they were kept alive to earn these
During the time of the Industrial Revolution, which was throughout the Manifest Destiny, the cotton gin increased demand for cotton, which led to an increase in children working in the employment industry. The video says, “In the eighteen thirties, a ten year old mill girl described her life. [She said] we were paid two dollars a week and the working hours of all the girls extended from five o’clock in the morning till seven in the evening, with one half hour for breakfast and for dinner”(Turning Points in History- Industrial Revolution). This demonstrates that the working conditions were long and tiresome. The girls were paid the bare minimum for their prolonged, strenuous
Women were tired of not being able to speak up and wanted a voice in public. The reform was successful in the end despite the challenges faced to obtain their right’s equal to men. Starting from 1865 to 1919 the American history holds a violent period known as the Labor movement. This movement was initiated by strikers because of wage cuts and the depersonalization of workers. Workers wanted an end to inhuman behaviors from employers by rioting and causing a financial depression in the nation.
Traditional relief programs such as Red Cross withheld aid and the assurance from the NMU to corroborate with the striking miners gained the dedication from a small portion of the miners for them. When the strike had failed, no relief was there. These miners and their families were completely on their own and had been for a while. While the miners of the coal mines made the decision to go on strike, the women and children in their lives were affect more than they should have
In the mid 1800s industry was advancing and children of all ages were working in dangerous factories. People attempted to strike against these rules, while some decided not to. In the book ¨Lyddie¨ by Katherine Paterson, the main character Lyddie has a job in a factory with very poor conditions and long hours. Since this was only the 1800s, child labor laws were not yet established and Lyddie was recently introduced to her idea of rebelling against the rules for more rights.
Working nine- and ten-hour days, six days a week, their main meal was usually little more than bread and molasses.” … “Life expectancy for mill workers was 22 years less than for non-mill worker residents of Lawrence.” These were the main issues that resulted in more than 20,000 textile immigrant workers striking. (L. Fernandez, 2014) The 1912 “Bread and Roses” strike was led by the industrial mill- textile workers of Everett Mill in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
Women had no rights when it came to working and since they didn’t have rights not many women got employed. Also, the jobs that were available were not for women and if mill owners decided to hire women they would go and hire immigrant women instead. The reason they would hire these immigrant women was because they accepted any amount of money so the owners of the mill would make more profit than they would if they paid American women to work for them. However, if a women did get a job they would normally get paid less than men did since they weren’t seen as equal to them and the conditions were usually not the best. Since there were no laws against discrimination in the 1800’s there was nothing an American women could do to demand the equality they deserved in the workforce.
About one hundred thousand workers from six hundred different mills were on strike there. The strikers wanted their work cut from sixty to fifty-five hours. About a sixth of the strikers were children under sixteen.” ( 5, Josephson). As a result, she gathered a large group of mill children and their parents, shaming the mill owners of their actions.
Back in Revolutionary War times. People thought that a woman’s role was to raise law-abiding children. The Daughters of Liberty still took on this role, but they showed that women could do much more than just stay at home, raise children, and do chores around the house. Women like Deborah Sampson showed that women could fight for their freedom, just like men did. By signing agreements, boycotting goods, and helping out a good cause women proved that they could take charge and do anything they put their minds to.
Child labor was a great problem in the Industrial Revolution. Factory owners usually hired women and children rather than men. They said that men expected higher wages, and they suspected that they were more likely to rebel against the company. Women and children were forced to work from six in the morning to seven at night, and this was when they were not so busy. They were forced to arrive on time and they couldn’t fall behind with their work because if they did they were whipped and punished.