Nine Hours Strike
 | This article contains wording that promotes the subject in a subjective manner without imparting real information. (March 2025) |
| Nine Hours Strike | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | August 1871 | ||
| Location | |||
| Goals | 9 hour work days | ||
| Parties | |||
| |||
The Nine Hours Strike was an 1871 labour dispute in the engineering trade in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Its name refers to the engineers' demand for a normal working day of no more than nine hours, following the Factories Act 1847, which limited women and children to 10 working hours a day.[1]
Strike
[edit]The strike began in August 1871, when engineers in Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, and adjoining areas of Tyneside formally requested that their employers limit working hours to 9 hours maximum per day. Though spearheaded by members of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers (ASE), approximately 10% of the engineers involved in the strike were unionized.[2] Rather than relying on union strength, a temporary "Nine Hours League" was formed, led by John Burnett, a member of the ASE District Committee.[3]
Despite a similar strike in Sunderland resolving in only four weeks a few months prior, the Nine Hours Strike continued for five months and included over 8,000 participants. Though most of the strikers were not well-educated, those who could read and write—such as John Brown, grandfather of anarcho-syndicalist engineer Tom Brown—contacted local newspapers and began their own publications, which circulated widely across Great Britain.
Strikes in Great Britain typically garnered little public favor until the early 1900s, but the nationwide support for the Nine Hours Strike was notable.[2] Nearly three months into the strike, the movement was gaining traction, with financial and material support arriving from across Great Britain, while British engineering companies sought to stem the flow of support.[3] Matthew Dryden, a Tyneside songwriter, wrote "Perseveer"[4] or "The Nine Oors Movement" (written in Geordie dialect words and sung to the tune of "Nelly Ray"), and staged concerts to raise funds for the strikers.
Faced with growing national support for the strike, company executives (led by Sir W.G. Armstrong, proprietor of Armstrong Whitworth) organized to call in strikebreakers from the edges of the British Isles, Belgium, and Germany to continue operations. These efforts were halted by a representative from the International Workingmen's Association, who persuaded the strikebreakers to return home.[3]
Outcome
[edit]At the conclusion of the strike, engineering firms agreed to a shorter 54-hour work week consisting of six 9-hour days, later adjusted to five 9-and-a-half hour days and a shorter 6-and-a-half-hour day on Saturday. The agreement was adjusted again to limit Saturdays to 5-and-a-half hours. [3]
In the years that followed, similar strikes spread across Great Britain, involving engineers, shipbuilding workers and other disciplines. John Burnett, former head of the Nine Hours League, later became General Secretary of the ASE.[3]
See also
[edit]- Geordie dialect words
- Trade unions in the United Kingdom
- Strike action
- Nine-Hour Movement, a similar effort around the same time in Canada
References
[edit]- ^ Burnett, John (1872). Nine hours' movement: A history of the engineers' strike in Newcastle and Gateshead. J. W. Swanston. p. 77.
- ^ a b Cronin, James E. (1978). "Strikes and Power in Britain, 1870–1920". International Review of Social History. 32 (2): 144–167. doi:10.1017/S0020859000008403. JSTOR 44581972.
- ^ a b c d e Brown, Tom (1962). Sharpley, Kate (ed.). "Fighting for the Nine-Hour Day". Kate Sharpley Library. World Labour News. Archived from the original on 8 October 2024. Retrieved 6 February 2025.
- ^ "Conrad Bladey's Beuk O' Newcassel Sangs". Archived from the original on 11 December 2008. Retrieved 28 February 2012.