This photo dates from 1934, during the nine-month strike by 650 workers at the firm of Richard Johnson & Nephew Ltd, Wiredrawers, of Forge Lane, Bradford, Manchester. Strike leaders Alf Bywater and Bill Dunn are shown addressing the workers. The cause of the strike was the introduction of a system designed to maximise productivity: the Bedaux System. This represented a method of time and motion … Continue reading Manchester wiredrawers’ strike, 1934
Photograph of the NUM banner in Trafalgar Square, 1985. Continue reading Strikes: a guide to sources
The bursary generously provided by the Society for the Study of Labour History allowed me to travel to the Modern Records Centre at the University of Warwick for holdings relating to the 1926 General Strike. The title of my MA thesis is ‘Towards a Semantic History of the 1926 UK General Strike’. My research used materials from the archive of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), … Continue reading Oliver Cooper (Sheffield) on researching the language of discourse in the 1926 General Strike
Thanks to the bursary generously given to me by the SSLH, I was able to visit Norfolk Record Office to consult archive material on the Burston School Strike, the longest strike in British history. School strikes are underdeveloped events in historiography. It is the purpose of my study to examine the origins and impacts of strike action involving organised children. It will use an inter-regional … Continue reading Matthew Thomas (Sunderland) visits Norfolk to investigate the Burston School Strike
Commemorating 40 years since the beginning of the Grunwick Dispute, this seminal text examines the intersection of trade unions, race and the law during one of the most defining events for unions of the twentieth century. The Grunwick Dispute fundamentally changed the way trade unions operated, and brought migrant labour concerns to the fore. This second edition of Jack Dromey and Graham Taylor’s work is … Continue reading Grunwick: the workers’ story
Society for the Study of Labour History 