THE WOMEN’S LEGACY

The women’s victory was to have a huge impact right across the British labour movement. The success of the dispute motivated many to see the benefits of organising in trade unions. The years 1910 to 1920 saw the NFWW’s membership rise from 2,000 to 20,000.

The chainmakers’ strike was not just a local dispute. It was, in effect, a campaign to establish and enforce a minimum wage in an industry notorious for low pay and appalling conditions. Soon, more trade boards were established in other industries, as the government accepted for the first time that every worker was entitled to a living wage in an industry notorious for low pay and appalling conditions. Soon, more trade boards were established in other industries, as the government accepted for the first time that every worker was entitled to a living wage.

Had the strike failed, it is probable that the trade board policy would have failed too. Thus the women chainmakers’ lockout was to have a lasting effect on wage law, as Britain played an internationally pioneering role in regulating low pay. Trade boards and wages councils guaranteed minimum wage levels for many decades, particularly in low-wage service industries where trade unions were not well organised.

Eighty-eight years after the strike, in 1998, the Labour government passed the National Minimum Wage Act which extended minimum pay protection to all industries and raised the wages of an estimated 1.5 million people.

The strike demonstrated the determination of a group of low-paid women to successfully fight for a living wage. It is a struggle that deserves to stand alongside that of the Bryant and May matchgirls’ strike of 1888 in the annals of labour history.

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