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1913 LOCK OUT Background

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IRELAND A AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY IN 1870’S Not enough available Coal & iron Population getting smaller since the

famine Few people were willing to invest money

in Irish industry. Goods were cheaper from abroad. Irish industry failed to modernise or get

new technology

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INDUSTRIAL DECLINE 2nd half of 19th century

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EXPORTS Arthur Guinness, Porter exported

throughout the world, 2,000 workers. Jameson distillers. Whiskey.

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DUBLIN Employment was casual Little industrial work

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BELFAST CITY OF INDUSTRY Coal & iron available from England. People moving into the city provided

labour. People willing to invest in industry Free trade between UK & Ireland helped

import of raw materials and export of finished goods.

Industries willing to use new technologies

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LONG TRADITION OF INDUSTRY Flax, Belfast. Derry 1900 60,000 workers Shirt making in Derry 1900- 20,000. Harsh conditions but had more than one

wage

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SHIP BUILDING BELFAST 1870-1914 biggest shipbuilding centre

in the world Harland & Wolf used latest technology Built Titanic 12,000 workers Workman, Clarke 3000

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LIVING & WORKING IN DUBLIN 1913

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LIVING & WORKING IN DUBLIN Skilled workers & tradesmen got higher

pay and protected by guilds Because there were so many workers

pay was low. Employed on a day to day basis –

carters, Dockers. No work for women or children. Up to 1914 20,000 families lived in one

room tenements

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SLUM DWELLERS IN DUBLIN

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FALLING DOWN: THE WRECKAGE OF DUBLIN SLUMS IN 1913. THIS PHOTOGRAPH OF THE REAR OF 46 BERESFORD STREET SHOWS SIMPSON´S COURT AND FALLEN HOUSES ON CHURCH STREET.

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CONDITIONS CONTINUED Wage just enough to pay rent and food Unsanitary conditions TB Highest death rate for children of any

city in Europe at the time

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WASTE GROUND CHANCERY LANE

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A SINGLE TENEMENT ROOM

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CASE STUDY 1913 LOCKOUT

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ITGWU BACKGROUND TO 1913 Membership of union rose from 4,000 in 1911

to 10,000 by 1913 because of James Larkin and Connolly.

James Larkin 1907 sent to Belfast as leader of British-based National Union of Dock Labourers.

Sympathetic strike. Others workers would strike in support.

Larkin was transferred to Dublin. 1900- 40,000 male manual workers, 10,000

skilled, 7,000 Dockers or carters, 23,000 casual labourers.

Those suspected of organising were blacklisted.

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Larkin was suspended from the British Dockers (cost them too much money) Union and set up the Irish Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU).

ITGWU Spread From Dublin to Belfast, Cork Limerick. Looked after both skilled and unskilled members.

Lost a number of strikes. Larkin imprisoned in 1910 after a strike in Cork.

1911 Larkin organised a number of successful strikes with carters and railway workers.

Believed Home rule was coming 1912 Connolly & Larkin form The Labour party to represent workers views.

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ITGWU 1911 4,000 members 1913 10,000 Employers worried because of the

growth of the union

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WILLIAM MARTIN MURPHY

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WILLIAM MARTIN MURPHY & DUBLIN EMPLOYERS 1911 employers form Dublin Employers

association. Leader Martin Murphy successful catholic

businessman from Binary Had been HR mp at Westminster. 1913 chairman of United Tramway

Company Owned Cleary's department store, and

controlled Irish Independent newspaper. Opposed trade unions getting in way of

employer employee relations. Saw Larkin as a dangerous revolutionary

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MURPHY BEGINS THE ATTACK. CHOOSE BETWEEN YOUR JOB AND THE UNION

19th July 6 ITGWU members sacked.Sympathetic strike in support of

Independent workers Sacked 40 men and 20 boys in Irish

Independent who refused to renounce the union. Picket placed on papers offices and newsboys refuse to sell the Independent. Workers in Eason's refused to distribute the paper.

Tramway workers refuse to handle the Independent 200 sacked.

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THE TRAMWAY STRIKE Larkin calls a general strike for 26

August to coincide with the Dublin Horse Show, the tramways’ busiest time of the year.

ITGWU could not reach workers in Dublin and they did not strike.

Only 200 out of 659 men strike. Murphy finds enough supervisors and

non union men to keep the daytime service running.

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JAMES LARKIN

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OUT COME Larkin and other union leaders arrested

after violence between strikers and strike breakers. Larkin let out on bail Connolly and others remained in prison.

ITGWU planned meeting banned, but Larkin says it will go ahead

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Larkin in disguise sneaks into the imperial. Police go berserk and baton anyone on

their way into the Hotel most of the 500 injured are churchgoers or middle class and non union

The proposed meeting in Sackville street changed by William Obrien to the outskirts of the city to avoid violence.

Larkin arrested and sent to jail

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Those returning from O’Brien's march attack the police.

Wave of sympathy due to police baton charges and invasion of flat complex called corporation buildings .

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MURPHY'S REACTION July 1913 Murphy at the head of a

meeting of 300 employers decides to force their workers to sign the following

‘I hereby undertake to carry out all instruction given me by or on behalf of my employers, and further, I agree to resign immediately my membership of the Irish transport and General Workers’ union, and I further undertake that I will not join or in any way support the Union.

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LOCKOUT! Over the next two weeks workers in one industry

would refuse to handle goods from a firm on strike would be locked out by their employer.

Jacobs locked out 2,000 workers stating that“ We have no difficulty with our workers

belonging to a trade union conducted on ordinary lines but we must in future refuse to give employment to any member of the Irish Transport Union, an organisation which has been conducted with so much tyranny and injustice! The vast majority of out women and girls as well as a large number of the men came to work as usual and it is a source of much regret that their employment will be temporarily interfered with”

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CRISIS IN DUBLIN Throughout September the strike

spreads by October 20,000 men and women are on strike or are locked out.

100,000 people are affected. Supply of fuel and food disrupted Prises rise. Well off as well as poor affected ITGWU members work in the soup

kitchens in Liberty Hall

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BRITISH TRADE UNIONS REACTION Horrified at the poverty and low wages. Saw this attack on Irish unions as an attack on

all unions throughout the UK. The British Trade Union Congress organised aid.

Sent a ship ‘The Hare’ to Dublin loaded with food. 9000 parcels distributed.

Steady stream of clothes, food and money . 1913-1914 -£100,000 sent by TUC to Dublin. Murphy’s paper mock Larkin for his dependence

on charity. The TUC were moderate socialists and wanted

the strike to end, saw strike action as a last resort.

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REACTION FROM GOVERNMENT AND HOME RULE PARTY Liberals wanted to get everybody back

to work. They depended on the Home rule party to keep in power.

Redmond and John Dillon did not like Larkin but they hated Murphy they had an old quarrel with him going back to the Parnell divorce case and he attacked them constantly in his papers.

Dillon and Redmond were more concerned Home Rule and the Unionist opposition to it

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GOVERNMENT SEPT 24 STARTS FOR AN INQUIRY Askwith enquiry Both sides could cross examine each other Workers put forward a good case shoed how low the

wages were in Ireland compared with Britain, and how bad living conditions were.

They didn’t demand too much, Larkin offered to end the sympathetic strike if the sacked workers were reinstated, recognise the ITGWU.

Askwith condemned both sympathetic strikes and the employers demand that the workers leave the ITGWU. Also proposed conciliation committees be set up to settle disputes.

Trade Union agrees employers don't and look unreasonable loosing them support.

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DUBLIN KIDDIES SCHEME Planned to send children of strikers to

England but this was blocked by Archbishop Walsh and the Catholic church leading to a public outcry against this and it had to be abandoned

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EMPLOYERS FIGHT BACK Use lorries to bring coal into the city.

This is so successful it continues after the strikes end and carters loose their jobs.

Use free labour i.e. those people from outside the city who are not in the union

Uses the British employers ‘The shipping Federation’ to bring in 600 workers to unload ships in Dublin Port.

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Larkin closes the Dublin Port after the Shipping Federation ships arrive.

TUC against sympathetic strikes and refuse to strike.

Larkin demands a special meeting of TUC for 9 December goes on a tour to drum up support attacks the TUC leaders, alienates the people who had helped him and the meeting on the 9th ends up with Larkin getting little support.

British National Union of railwaymen orders its members in Dublin port to resume work.

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COLLAPSE OF THE STRIKE Amount of aid by British union decline they

had their own problems. Murphy sensing victory refuses to

compromise. By Jan1914 it was clear the ITGWU had lost. Workers begin negotiate with their

employers about going back to work get. No increase in pay, lucky ones get their jobs back. Others were only allowed back if they left the ITGWU.

2000 were not employed because employers preferred to keep on the strike breakers. Some of these were women in Jacobs

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FATE OF THE MOVEMENT ITGWU decline Larkin worn out goes to USA in 1914 Connolly takes over ITGU becomes

leader of citizens army 1914 WWI starts 1916 Connolly involved in Rising

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ASSESSMENT Murphy won but at a dear price he

became one of the most hated figures in Irish History because he starved workers into submission

The workers lost the battle but won the war no future employer would destroy a union in such the brutal way Murphy did.

The right of workers to organise themselves into unions and to choose their leaders was established