Essay on Strikes: In. Annie Besant

Submitted By kylebaron
Words: 337
Pages: 2

strikes

Months Ago today Clementina Black gave a horrifying speech on Female labor that shocked everyone. Annie besant, who attended this speech, interviewed Black and a few other workers at Bryant and May and the results were outrageous. Besant discovered that the woman work fourteen hours a day for a wage of less than 5 shillings a week. However the woman rarely received this amount due to a cruel system that punishes these woman. These punishments were often given by absurd actions such as going to the toilet without permission or even something as small as talking. At the Bryant and May factory, where they manufacture matches, these women s health were severely affected by the phosphorous used to make the matches. This caused phossy jaw.
The whole side of the face would turn black and would finally lead to death. On June 23rd, 1888, an article was written before about the factory conditions. Bryant and May company reacted severely and forced their workers to sign a statement that said they were happy with their working conditions. When a group of woman refused to sign, the organisers of the group was sacked. The response was 1500 of the woman at bryant and May went on Strike. Many news reporters and their newspapers called for a boycott of Bryan and May company. The women of Bryant and May also formed the Matchgirls union with Besant as the leader. After weeks the company announced it was willing to re­employ with better working
conditions