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A demonstrator wearing a Thatcher mask
during the miners
strike
How Thatcherism ultimately triumphed — without Thatcher
Ts
Last updated at 5:05PM, April 8 2013
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/politics/article3053869.ece

Poker playing
during a sit-in
at Bredbury Steel works,
Manchester, April 1972.
12,000 strikers
were involved in sit-ins
in dozens of factories across the city.
The men at
Bredbury Steel,
photographed here by Don McPhee,
organised
themselves in nine shifts of 60 men,
each on duty for eight hours.
Photograph: Don
McPhee for the Guardian
Direct action!
Seventy years of strikes in pictures from the GNM Archive
G
Tuesday 3 March 2015 00.00 GMT
http://www.theguardian.com/gnm-archive/gallery/2015/mar/03/
direct-action-seventy-years-of-strikes-in-pictures-from-the-gnm-archive

A meeting of
U.A.W. Local 600 members
during the strike
at Ford’s River Rouge plant in 1941.
Photograph: Bettmann
Archive
Occupy Detroit: A
Look at 90 Years of Auto Strikes
Walkouts and
sit-ins
by the United
Automobile Workers over the decades
helped secure
contracts
that lifted
members into the middle class.
NYT
Sept. 26, 2019
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/26/
automobiles/auto-strikes-history.html

The sit-down
strike of 1936-37
forced General
Motors
to recognize the
United Automobile Workers union.
These workers
occupied G.M.’s Fisher Body plant
in Flint, Mich.
Credit United
Press International
Occupy Detroit: A
Look at 90 Years of Auto Strikes
Walkouts and
sit-ins
by the United
Automobile Workers over the decades
helped secure
contracts
that lifted
members into the middle class.
NYT
Sept. 26, 2019
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/26/
automobiles/auto-strikes-history.html
strike
UK
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jun/17/
workers-strike-lose-benefits
strike
FR / UK
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/aug/07/
southern-railway-passengers-week-disruption-rmt-strike-union-five-day-walkout
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/may/18/
train-conductors-strike-travel-chaos-southern-rmt-union-walkout
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/26/
jeremy-hunt-nhs-junior-doctors-strike
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/dec/09/
living-with-the-consequences-of-the-1972-national-building-workers-strike
http://www.theguardian.com/gnm-archive/gallery/2015/mar/03/
direct-action-seventy-years-of-strikes-in-pictures-from-the-gnm-archive
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/feb/05/
tube-strike-disruption-london-commuters
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/nov/30/
strikes-public-sector-pensions-impact
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/quiz/2011/nov/30/
quiz-strikes-in-literature
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/dec/13/
bob-crow-strikes-rmt-union
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/oct/10/
post.immigrationpolicy
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/mar/28/
schools.politics
https://www.liberation.fr/medias/1997/05/13/
arte-20h45-les-dockers-de-liverpool-de-ken-loach-documentaire-
sur-une-greve-ignoree-loach-simplement_205895
https://www.independent.co.uk/
arts-entertainment/thirty-years-that-shook-the-world-1313556.html
- 8 December 1996
United Automobile
Workers UAW USA
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/26/
automobiles/auto-strikes-history.html
United Steel Workers union
USA
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/12/
business/economy/lynn-williams-89-led-steelworkers-union-is-dead.html
strike
USA
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/
opinion/coronavirus-amazon-wildcat-strikes.html
https://www.npr.org/2019/10/23/
772760183/it-s-time-to-get-something-back-union-workers-voices-are-getting-louder
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/26/
automobiles/auto-strikes-history.html
https://www.npr.org/2018/02/27/
589376887/west-virginia-teachers-ending-strike
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/05/27/
479750877/verizon-labor-unions-reach-tentative-deal-to-end-weeks-long-strike
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/01/
business/strike-for-day-seeks-to-raise-fast-food-pay.html
http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/04/04/
176260454/nycs-fast-food-workers-strike-demand-living-wages
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2007-09-24-
uaw-gm_N.htm
strikes at Amazon and
elsewhere
over working
conditions and low pay USA
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/
opinion/coronavirus-amazon-wildcat-strikes.html
hunger strike
USA
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/01/
opinion/president-obama-and-the-hunger-strike-at-guantanamo.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/06/
opinion/hunger-strike-at-guantanamo-bay.html
wildcat strike
USA
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/
opinion/coronavirus-amazon-wildcat-strikes.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/17/nyregion/
vincent-sombrotto-leader-of-1970-postal-strike-dies-at-89.html
go on strike
UK
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jan/18/
row-pensions-profits-unilever
go on strike
USA
https://www.npr.org/2019/10/23/
772760183/it-s-time-to-get-something-back-union-workers-voices-are-getting-louder
https://www.npr.org/2018/12/08/
674741135/teachers-in-chicagos-charter-schools-go-on-strike-and-troubled-for-profit-colleg
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/13/
474052786/tens-of-thousands-of-verizon-workers-go-on-strike
be on strike
UK
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/nov/30/
comment
30 November public sector strike
UK
2011
https://www.theguardian.com/society/
november-30-public-sector-strike
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/nov/30/
strikes-public-sector-pensions-impact
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/nov/30/
public-sector-strike-day-questions
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/gallery/2011/nov/30/
public-sector-strike-pictures
https://www.theguardian.com/society/datablog/interactive/2011/nov/30/
public-sector-strikes-nov-30-action-map
the miners' strike
1984
fast-food workers’ movement
USA 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/15/
business/fast-food-protests-spread-overseas.html
walk out
UK
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/nov/30/
strikes-public-sector-pensions-impact
walk out
USA
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/23/
us/west-virginia-teachers-strike.html
walk off their / the jobs /
job
USA
https://www.npr.org/2019/10/23/
772760183/it-s-time-to-get-something-back-union-workers-voices-are-getting-louder
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/08/
opinion/fast-food-fight.html
Eric Joseph Schmertz
USA 1925-2010
as one of the nation’s
most relied-upon
labor peacemakers
he helped resolve
thousands of labor disputes,
getting both the Rockettes
and New York City cab drivers
to end strikes in the
1960s
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/22/nyregion/
22schmertz.html
stoppage / strike / industrial action / walk out / wild cat
strike / wildcat walkout UK
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/aug/08/
are-you-striking-or-are-you-affected-by-the-southern-rail-industrial-action
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/mar/30/
windsor-castle-staff-to-hold-ballot-on-industrial-action
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/feb/05/
tube-strike-disruption-london-commuters
walk out
UK / USA
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/oct/27/
winter-of-discontent
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2007-10-10-
uaw-chrysler-talks_N.htm
walkout USA
https://www.npr.org/2018/02/28/
589764641/w-va-teacher-walkouts-school-closures-continue-despite-governors-deal-with-union
take to the picket lines
USA
https://www.npr.org/2019/01/14/
685095810/under-rainy-skies-los-angeles-teachers-take-to-the-picket-lines
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2007-10-10-
uaw-chrysler-talks_N.htm
unofficial strike / industrial unrest
UK
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2007/oct/12/
postalservice1
The miners' strike
1984-85
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/miners-strike-1984-85
be on strike
UK
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/oct/27/
winter-of-discontent
disruption
dispute
fight USA
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/08/
opinion/fast-food-fight.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/13/us/
13smithfield.html
activist
political activist
strike
break strike
stage new 48-hour strike
picket
https://www.theguardian.com/fromthearchive/
story/0,12269,1309332,00.html
scab
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strikebreaker
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=scab
showdown
winter of discontent /
the 'Winter of Discontent'
UK
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/mar/27/
obituaries.politics
dispute
dispute over pay
talks
falter
unemployment crusade / the Jarrow Marchers
UK
1936
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/sep/18/
past.britishidentity
A Day’s Strike
Seeks to Raise Fast-Food Pay
July 31, 2013
The New York Times
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
From New York to several Midwestern cities, thousands of
fast-food workers have been holding one-day strikes during peak mealtimes,
quickly drawing national attention to their demands for much higher wages.
What began in Manhattan eight months ago first spread to Chicago and Washington
and this week has hit St. Louis, Kansas City, Detroit and Flint, Mich. On
Wednesday alone, workers picketed McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Popeye’s and Long John
Silver’s restaurants in those cities with an ambitious agenda: pay of $15 an
hour, twice what many now earn.
These strikes, which are planned for Milwaukee on Thursday, carry the flavor of
Occupy Wall Street protests and are far different from traditional unionization
efforts that generally focus on a single workplace. The national campaign,
underwritten with millions of dollars from the Service Employees International
Union, aims to mobilize workers — all at once — in numerous cities at hundreds
of restaurants from two dozen chains.
None of the nation’s 200,000-plus fast-food restaurants are unionized.
The strategists know they want to achieve a $15 wage, but they seem to be
ad-libbing on ways to get there. Perhaps they will seek to unionize workers at
dozens of restaurants, although some labor leaders scoff at that idea because
the turnover rate among fast-food employees is about 75 percent a year. Or the
strategists and strikers might press city councils to enact a special “living
wage” for fast-food restaurants. Or perhaps by continually disrupting the
fast-food marketplace from counter to counter across the country, they can get
McDonald’s, KFC and others to raise wages to end the ruckus. The protests’
organizers acknowledge that yet another goal is to push Congress to raise the
federal minimum wage and pressure state legislatures to raise the state
minimums.
“These companies aren’t magically going to make our lives better,” said Terrance
Wise, who earns $9.30 an hour after working for eight years at a Burger King in
Kansas City, plus $7.40 an hour at his second job at Pizza Hut. “We can sit back
and stay silent and continue to live in poverty or, on the other hand, we can
step out and say something and let it be known that we need help.”
In explaining why her union is pouring dozens of organizers and significant sums
into the effort, Mary Kay Henry, the S.E.I.U. president, said, “Our union’s
members think that economic inequality is the No. 1 problem our nation needs to
solve. We think it’s important to back low-wage workers who are willing to stand
up and have the courage to strike to make the case that the economy is creating
jobs that people can’t support their families on.”
The protests in Detroit on Wednesday had a particularly poignant backdrop, given
that the city has declared bankruptcy. Dozens of workers, joined by members of
various unions and community groups, picketed in front of McDonald’s and Taco
Bell, shouting chants like, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, $7.40 has got to go” — the amount
per hour many of them are paid.
“Fifteen dollars an hour would be great – we’d be able to pay our living costs,”
said Christopher Drumgold, 32, a father of two who earns $7.40 an hour after a
year working at a McDonald’s on Seven Mile Road in Detroit. “On what I’m earning
right now you have to choose between paying your rent and eating the next day.”
Restaurant industry officials say the strikers’ demand for $15 an hour is
ludicrous because it amounts to more than twice the federal minimum wage. (The
median pay for fast-food workers nationwide is $9.05 an hour.) Industry
officials say a $15 wage might drive many restaurants out of business and cause
restaurant owners to hire fewer workers and replace some with automation —
perhaps by using more computerized gadgets where customers punch in the orders
themselves.
Scott DeFife, executive vice president of the National Restaurant Association,
said the one-day walkouts were not really strikes, but rather
public-relations-minded protests that have caused very few restaurants to close.
“It is an effort to demonize the entire industry in order to make some
organizing and political points,” he said, adding that only a small percentage
of restaurant jobs pay the minimum wage. He said most of those positions were
held by workers younger than 25.
Organizers of the protests — called Fast Food Forward in New York and Fight for
15 in Chicago — say that it seems to be catching fire. Some fast-food workers in
St. Louis, inspired by the strikes in New York and Chicago, held their own
one-day walkout.
“Things are going phenomenally. Workers all over the country are taking action
in an industry where there had literally been no action or traction a year ago,”
said Jonathan Westin, executive director of New York Communities for Change,
which played a crucial role organizing the first fast-food strike in New York
last November.
Explaining the focus on fast-food workers, Mr. Westin added, “In a lot of
low-income neighborhoods, probably the largest employer is the fast-food
industry, and we’re not going to reduce the level of poverty in those
neighborhoods unless we try to get that industry to provide jobs that pay a
living wage.”
Late Wednesday morning, 100 people protested in front of a Taco Bell on Eight
Mile Road in Detroit, with organizers saying that 11 of the restaurant’s
employees were on strike.
One Taco Bell worker, Sharise Stitt, 27, joined the strike, saying the $8.09 she
earns after five years there was insufficient to support her family.
She was evicted from her Detroit apartment and moved her family to her sister’s
house in Taylor, Mich. That means a 45-minute commute each way and a gas bill of
$50 every four days. After taxes, she has about $900 a month to feed and clothe
her three children. They receive food stamps.
“Sometimes my phone will go out because that isn’t a priority,” she said.
“Giving my kids a roof over their heads is.”
She would love a $15 minimum wage. “I wouldn’t have to worry about school
supplies or things like that,” she added.
Nelson Lichtenstein, a labor historian at the University of California, Santa
Barbara, said he doubted the fast-food strikes would result in unionization.
While unions might be excited by the current burst of enthusiasm, he said unions
had learned to be cautious, adding, “You pour in a lot of resources, saying,
‘Yes it does work,’ and a year later it disintegrates.”
Nonetheless, he said the periodic chaos the one-day walkouts cause could
influence the industry to pay more and could nudge lawmakers to raise the
minimum wage (which Republicans in Washington strongly oppose).
Dorian T. Warren, who teaches a course on labor organizing at Columbia
University, noted that most of the urban workers taking part in the single-day
strikes were black and Hispanic, demographic groups that often lean in favor of
unions.
“I think a vast majority would vote for unionization,” he said. “Many are
earning so little they have nothing to lose.”
“Will they get $15 an hour?” he added. “I don’t know. If they get to $10 or $12,
that’d be huge.”
Jaclyn Trop contributed reporting.
A Day’s Strike Seeks
to Raise Fast-Food Pay,
NYT,
31.7.2013,
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/01/
business/strike-for-day-seeks-to-raise-fast-food-pay.html
September 9, 1893
Soldiers kill three miners in
Pontefract
From the Guardian archive
Saturday September 9, 1893
Guardian
The scene of the riots at Featherstone, near Pontefract, which extended until
after midnight, was yesterday morning one of desertion and desolation. The town
of Featherstone was almost all in mourning.
It was about nine o'clock on Thursday night when the South Staffordshire
detachment first fired on the mobs which were besieging the colliery of Lord
Masham and were charging the soldiers with stones. The first shot was only by
one file of two men, and these did not take effect. Shortly before ten o'clock
one section of the Staffordshires fired two volleys.
So far as could be ascertained seven of the mob were hit. James Gibbs, of
Loscoe, was shot through the breast, and expired. James Perkins, knee shot away,
died yesterday.
It was eleven o'clock on Thursday night before the Staffordshire were reinforced
by detachments of Yorkshire Light Infantry and York and Lancaster Regiment,
whose duty did not extend beyond that of keeping the crowd off the colliery
premises.
Mr. Bernard Hartley, the magistrate who was pelted with stones whilst reading
the Riot Act, was little the worse yesterday. Another death is now reported. The
victim, one of the miners shot, named Tomlinson, was a Normanton man.
Throwing Away Sympathy
It is with a kind of despair that those who have hoped that this dispute might
end with some concession on the part of the coal-owners now see a small reckless
percentage of the colliers throwing away tactical advantages. Hitherto public
sympathy has been remarkably evenly divided between the parties. The miners'
refusal of arbitration has been resented by many; the abrupt and tactless demand
of the coal-owners for a heavy [wage] reduction "in one piece" has been resented
by about as many more.
But riots like this bring a mass of fresh public opinion to bear. The miners
appear as wanton robbers and destroyers, the coal-owners as law-abiding men
subjected to cruel injury.
For the sake of the miners and of trade unionism itself, we hope that every
repetition of these blundering crimes will be repressed with more common sense
than when soldiers were helplessly looking on for want of a magistrate to read
the Riot Act.
· A sculpture was unveiled at Featherstone
in 1993 marking the centenary
of "the
Featherstone massacre",
in which it says two miners died.
From the Guardian
archive,
September 9, 1893,
Soldiers kill three miners in Pontefract,
G,
Republished 9.9.2006,
http://www.theguardian.com/news/1893/sep/09/
mainsection.fromthearchive
Related > Anglonautes >
Vocapedia
jobs > unions
UK / USA > protests / demonstrations
UK / USA > riots
UK / USA >
politics > occupy movements
industry, energy, commodities
economy, money, taxes,
housing market, shopping,
jobs, unemployment, unions, retirement,
debt,
poverty, homelessness
glass ceiling
Related > Anglonautes > History > 20th century > UK
Margaret
Thatcher 1925-2013
|