London Matchgirls Strike of 1888 - The Strike

The Strike

The strike was caused by the poor working conditions in the match factory, including fourteen-hour work days, poor pay, excessive fines, and the severe health complications of working with white phosphorus, such as phossy jaw, but was sparked by the dismissal of one of the workers on or about 2 July 1888.

Annie Besant had interested herself in the situation with her friend Herbert Burrows and had published an article in her halfpenny weekly paper "The Link" on 23 June 1888. This had angered the Bryant & May management who tried to get their workforce to sign a paper contradicting it, which they refused to do. This led to the dismissal of a worker (on some other pretext), which set off the strike.

Initiated by the workers themselves, the strike started immediately and 1,400 women and girls seem to have been on strike by the end of the first day. The management immediately offered to reinstate the sacked employee, but the women then demanded other concessions, particularly in relation to the unfair fines which were deducted from their wages. A deputation of women went to the management but were not satisfied. By 6 July the whole factory had had to stop work, on which day about a hundred of the women went to see Besant and to ask for her assistance. It has often been said that she started or led the strike but this is not so. She knew nothing of it until the deputation called to see her and was at first rather dismayed by the precipitate action they had taken and by the number of women who were now out of work with no means of support

A strike fund was set up and some newspapers collected donations from readers. The women and girls also solicited contributions. Members of the Fabian Society including George Bernard Shaw, Sidney Webb and Graham Wallas were involved in the distribution of the cash collected.

Meetings were held by the strikers and Besant spoke at some of them. Charles Bradlaugh MP spoke in parliament and a deputation of matchwomen went there to meet three MPs on 11 July. There was much publicity. The London Trades Council became involved. At first the management were firm, but factory owner Bryant was a leading liberal and nervous of the publicity. Besant helped at meetings with the management and terms were formulated at a meeting on 16 July, in accordance with which it was offered that fines, deductions for cost of materials and other unfair deductions should be abolished and that in future grievances could be taken straight to the management without having to involve the foremen, who had prevented the management from knowing of previous complaints. Also, very importantly, meals were to be taken in a separate room, where the food would not be contaminated with phosphorus. These terms were accepted and the strike ended.