THANK goodness for trade unions and thank goodness for the matchgirls.

Those heart-breaking depictions of helpless little girls are a bit misleading, as Bryant and May eventually realised.

Because of their market success, Bryant and May relocated to Fairfield Road in East London, manufacturing around 28 million boxes of matches thereby generating substantial sums for their shareholders. Most of the workers were women and girls whose tiny wages were reduced further by deductions for having an untidy workbench or for talking …. or for having dirty feet! The women had to supply glue and brushes, all while working 14- hour days.

The risk of phosphorus necrosis was a dangerous aspect of working with matches.

Predictably, righting these wrongs took persistent campaigning and a factory-load of courage. Annie Besant’s article ‘White Slavery in London’ (5 July 1888) angered the bosses who asked the workers to repudiate its content.

They refused. Management sacked a worker, triggering a strike. By 6 July the entire factory had downed tools

So what happened? I’m glad you asked. There were meetings, MPs became involved, London TUC played its part, and resultant publicity was inescapable. An agreement was reached on 26 July 1888: deductions and fines would be abolished.

A fair grievance procedure would be introduced. The Union of Women Matchmakers (later The Matchmakers Union) was formed with Sarah Chapman as president,

Sarah who had led the campaign with a few colleagues and whose descendant, Sam Johnson, works hard to raise our awareness.

This is not just history: these women changed our story, forging the way for us, showing how to stand up for ourselves. We should be grateful. Yet, there’s no statue, no memorial for the matchwomen yet.

This was a pivotal strike; we need to finish what they started.

www.matchgirls.org

On 28 April 2028 trade unionists mark International Workers Memorial Day: we’ll do so at our little tree in Harlow Town Park.

If you weren’t there last year, I’ll see you that evening in The Greyhound carpark at 7pm.

Note:

As Kay Morrison is a district councillor and is also standing in the county council elections, details of all candidates can be found on our politics page.