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Why Did The General Strike Take Place in Britain in 1926?
In May 1926, in the greatest unity the unions have ever shown in this country one and a half million members of the ‘Triple Alliance’ supported the miners and went on strike. There were various reasons why so many people were willing to strike. The miners demanded a lot of respect and higher wages because of the dangerous job they did and they were seen as the ‘barometer’ of industrial relations, this means if it happened to the miners it happened to the rest of the countries workforce soon after. The minors were very political minded and rebellious. The mine owners were rich and influential and when coal prices dropped in the aftermath of world war one they wanted to decrease the wages and increase the working day, the miners looked to their unions who were strong and confident.
One of the long-term causes of the strike went right back to before World War One. Between 1906 and the outbreak of war union membership doubled and trade unions grew in size. Industrial disputes were familiar and in 1918 when the police were not given permission to join a union they even went out on strike. When there were problems between the miners and the owner’s strikes often occurred but these were suspended on the outbreak of war because of the ‘national emergency’. The mines were nationalised and were run by the government, and the minors preferred this and thought it was the only way to get the modernisation they hoped for. After the war coal prices dropped mainly because of the stiff competition British coal faced with cheaper coal that Germany and Poland were mining in more modernised pits. In Britain in 1924 only cutting machines produced twenty per cent of the overall output, the rest was by handpicks. In addition France and Italy the main buyers before the war were now receiving free coal under the reparations from World War I. Mine owners failed to promote greater efficiency and more mechanisation which would allow them to compete better with other countries, the owners blamed falling profits on high wages and this lead to mine owners wanting to cut wages and increase the working day. After the war the government agreed to hand back the mines to the original owners and all hope of nationalisation and modernisation that would enable the industry to survive was lost.
Another long-term factor was down to the trade unions as they were becoming stronger all the time and union membership was always rising. They were strong and confident, and as the triple alliance would bring the country to a standstill they believed all they had to do in an industrial dispute was to threaten strike action and the government would back them up. This time they were wrong. They also believed in syndicalism, where they thought workers had a right in the running of the industry they worked in. They also wanted the mines to be nationalised and wanted more pay for the miners and not [next page]