Women chainmakers
News report- conditions in the chainshops
Letter to the Editor from W Rowlands
Interview with Mary Macarthur
Letter to the Editor from Mary Macarthur
Report of Mary's article in the "Christian Commonwealth"
In March 1910,workers making chain by hand, most of them women working in their own homes, were promised a minimum wage of 2½d (1p) an hour for a fifty-five hour week. Many employers were unwilling to pay, and tried to get the women to sign away their rights. The result was a strike of women chainmakers, that lasted ten weeks.
When the Trade Board Act was passed, it allowed a delay of three months before the law came into force. This came to an end on 17th August 1910, but the Act allowed a further six months, when workers could opt out of the new rates. Some employers paid the rate immediately, but many others tried to trick or force the women to sign agreements to work at the old rates. Very few of the women could read or write, and they were confused by legal forms. Many signed without realising what they had done.
The employers wanted to stockpile chain made at the old prices. When the minimum wage became law, they intended selling the chain they already had, at higher prices, while making the women unemployed. They were sure their plan would work, because chain does not deteriorate, can be easily stored, and unlike clothes, does not go out of fashion. They also knew that only about half of the women were in a union, and so did not expect much of a fight.
On the 23rd August, the National Federation of Women Workers, led by Mary Macarthur, prepared another agreement on behalf of the women chainmakers. It insisted on the new rates being paid immediately. The employers hit back by refusing to let the women have the materials they needed to work.
The Union called out on strike all those women who were working for less than the minimum rate. It was a very brave thing to do because, at that point no-one, not even Mary Macarthur, knew how they were going to raise the money they needed to pay the strikers. The strike was successful, and paved the way for minimum wages to be set in many other industries.
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| Updated: | Thu 12 Jul 2007 - 0 |
| Interpretation written by | Barbara Harris |
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