(see NATIONALIZATION). The establishment of a National Guild was part of the official programme of the Union of Post Office Workers (founded in 1920). Perhaps the fullest exposition of the new demand was made by the Miners' Federation in its pro- gramme presented to the Coal Commission in 1919, but by the autumn of 1921 it had only been translated into action in the building industry. The unprecedented shortage of houses following the war encouraged the Building Trade Unionists of Manchester to form a Building Guild, which offered to produce houses at cost price for the City Council, themselves controlling and providing the labour, guaranteeing full pay in sickness and bad weather to all members of the Guild, and relying upon the credit of the municipality to obtain the necessary materials. The example proved infectious, and after many experiments had been made in different towns, the National Building Guild was formed in 1921, with a number of branches, prepared to under- take work upon the same terms for local authorities or private companies or persons. In every case the Guild was initiated by the local branches of the Building Trade Unions, and none but
! trade unionists were admitted to membership. Pre-war Developments. Trade union history from 1910-1921 falls into three well-marked periods: the period of industrial unrest which had already begun by 1910 and which increased in intensity right up to the outbreak of war, the war period, and the revival of
i activity immediately following the Armistice. The two latter, as has been observed, coincided with great trade union prosperity, which continued unbroken for some months after the Armistice, and gradually came to an end, as the slump in trade became more pronounced, from 1920-1921. It may be said that the miners' strike, in the summer of the latter year, and the subsequent accept-
i ance by the miners of heavy reductions in wages, brought to an end the first post-war period in trade union history (see STRIKES).
The years 1910 to 1914 were years of growing industrial unrest. The chief factor underlying this was the steady rise in prices after the year 1906, which more than offset the slight increase in money wages, and produced a feeling in the workman's mind that his real wages were imperceptibly disappearing. Retail prices in London, which in 1906 stood at 2 % above the figure for 1900, had reached,
1 in 1911, 94%and in 1914, i6-8%above that figure.
Four of the industrial disputes which occurred during those years were of importance in trade union history the railway and transport strikes of 1911, the miners' strike of 1912, the Dublin strikes of 1913 and 1914, and the London building lock-out of 1914. The principal interest of the first series of strikes lies in the fact that the railwaymen's unions succeeded in paralysing for some days the greater part of the railway system of the United Kingdom, and thereby brought home to many who had not previously realized it, the potential power of trade unionism. The actual disputes, though partly connected with wage-rates, centred mainly around the question of recognition by the employers of the unions of shipping and railway workers. In the former case the owners agreed after some time to negotiate with the trade union representatives, and a settlement was eventually reached; in the latter, a Royal Com- mission was set up to investigate the working of the Conciliation Board, established in 1907, which had given rise to many com- plaints, and the Commission's report was accepted by both sides in conference, although the point of " recognition " of the trade unions was never conceded by the railway companies, and re- mained in dispute until the end of the war. An important result of these strikes was the consolidation of the railwaymen's trade unions. The existence of several separate unions was felt to be a
i weakness, and in 1913 three of them united to form the National Union of Railwaymen, which enrolled members rapidly and became by far the largest trade union representing railwaymen.
The coal dispute of 1912 brought to the forefront one of the_most important principles of trade unionism, that of the legal minimum wage. In the case of " sweated " industries, this had been recognized in the Trade Boards Act of 1909 but had not yet been applied to comparatively highly-paid workers, although in many industries, minimum rates, established by agreements between both sides, but not enforceable at law, were in existence. These rates varied gener- ally from district to district. The principle of a legal minimum, it should be stated, does not necessarily demand that the minimum should be national in its scope, though many trade unions, espe- cially during the war, demanded national minima, and even a na- tional minimum wage for all workers. The Miners' Federation first claimed that miners working in abnormally unfavourable places should be guaranteed a minimum daily rate, and, when this was refused by the coal-owners, extended their demand to cover all men and boys working in coal-mines, and further put forward a schedule of minimum district rates for the various coal-fields. _ The strike was terminated by both sides' acceptance of the Miners' Minimum Wage Act. This Act provided that rates should be fixed by joint boards, representative equally of mine-owners and
mine-workers, in each of 22 specified areas. If the two sides of any board failed to agree upon a rate, the rate should be fixed by the chairman. The Miners Federation thus secured the principle of a minimum, but failed to get their schedule generally adopted. They were very unwilling to accept this position, but the ballot having failed to disclose a two-third majority in favour of continuing the strike, it was declared at an end.
The Dublin dispute raised the question of " recognition " in a more acute form, and also provided many examples of " sympa- thetic " strike action. The employers in Dublin, as a protest against the aggressive trade union policy of the Irish Transport Workers' Union, discharged its members in their employment, bound themselves not to employ in future members of the union, and in many cases insisted that applicants for work should sign a form undertaking'to have no dealings with the union. This action roused a great deal of feeling both in Ireland and Great Britain ; sympathetic strikes occurred, and in British ports dockers and railivaymen refused to handle goods loaded in Dublin by non-union labour. The imprisonment of James Larkin on a charge of sedition greatly increased the upheaval. Dublin shipping was practically paralysed by a general strike of dock labourers, and large contributions in money and in kind were sent to the Irish Transport Union by English trade unions and the Cooperative Wholesale Society. The points in dispute were never definitely settled, but the strike petered out gradually in the early months of 1914.
Two important pieces of legislation, the National Insurance Act of 1911 and the Trade Union Act of 1913, were passed during this period.
The War Period. On the outbreak of war, a general truce between Capital and Labour was immediately arranged. Outstanding dis- putes, such as the building lock-out, were settled by one side giving way, or by compromise. Trade unions such as the National Union of Railwaymen, which had prepared a national programme of de- mands, delayed its presentation indefinitely, and the number of industrial disputes dropped from 682 in the first seven months of 1914 to 107 in the last five. For some time trade union history was in abeyance, until the rapid rise in prices and the necessity for in- creased production, in the munitions trades in particular, turned public attention to it again. The natural concern of most of the unions, as soon as the cost of living began seriously to rise, was with negotiating increases of wages. Other developments of interest took place mainly in two directions, of which the first was the abrogation of trade union conditions and the establishment, over a large number of trades, of compulsory arbitration under the Munitions of War Acts, and the effect of these two upon trade union govern- ment; and the second, the tendency, already mentioned, of the Government and the employers' association to admit the trade unions to a quasi-partnership on certain questions a partnership which endured, as a rule, only as long as rising prices made in- creased wages both possible and inevitable (see LABOUR SUPPLY).
The necessity for greater production, particularly of munitions and other stores required for the army, early began to be felt, and a series of strikes upon the Clyde brought the question to the fore. The Committee on Production, appointed by the Government in Feb. 1915, reported that one great difficulty in the way of increased production lay in the existence of certain rules and customs of the trade unions. These " trade union conditions " became, of considerable importance during the war. Every trade union of any size had before the war certain regulations, some written, but mostly unwritten, under which its members were allowed to work. These regulations related mainly to the class of labour which was permitted to perform any particular job, to the length and character of apprenticeship required, the rates to be paid, and the conditions under which work was to be done. Thus, certain jobs were reserved to fully-skilled craftsmen, had to be paid at the craftsmen's rate, and might only be performed by men who had received a certain train- ing, which in some cases occupied several years. The demand for munitions in large quantities, and the loss of many thousands of skilled men to the army, made it inevitable, in the first place, that semi-skilled and unskilled workmen should be " upgraded " on to skilled work, in order that the necessary increase in the amount of skilled work performed should take place, and secondly, that a great number of new workers should be introduced into the muni- tions industries, many of whom would only be able to receive a comparatively short training. The Government therefore, in March 1915, invitee! a number of the leading trade unions in the industries concerned with war production to the famous Treasury Conference, attended by all the unions invited with the exception of the Miners' Federation, at which it was agreed (a) that strikes and lock-outs in the munitions industries should cease for the period of the war, wage disputes being settled under a system of compulsory arbitra- tion; (b) that the trade unions would relax for the period of the war such of their customs as were necessary for the purpose of accelerating war output, it being understood that all such customs should be restored at the end of the war, and that, where labour of a lower degree of skill (such as women's labour) was introduced on work hitherto performed by skilled men, the rate of wages previously paid should not be reduced; (c) that the Government would limit the profits of owners in the munitions industries. The latter clause was made a condition of cooperation by the Amalgamated Society of
