Background to the 1910 strike
The campaign to end sweating, which began in the middle of the nineteenth century, was interrupted by the Boer War. A second wave of agitation began in 1906. The chain trade was at the centre of the battle for a minimum wage.
All for one and one for all
In 1909 a minimum wage was agreed for the chainmakers. Many employers refused to pay the new rate. For thirteen weeks the women chainmakers fought for what was rightly theirs.