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National Anti-Sweating League
The National Anti-Sweating League is the name adopted by two groups of social reformers in Australia and Britain at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Both campaigned against the poor conditions endured by many workers in so-called sweatshops and called for a minimum wage. Australia The National Anti-Sweating League was inaugurated in Melbourne on 29 Jul 1895, with Rev. A. Gosman as president, Samuel Mauger as secretary, and Alfred Deakin as treasurer.Race Mathews (1993) ''Australia's First Fabians: Middle-class Radicals, Labour Activists and the Early Labour Movement'' Cambridge University Press Vida Goldstein was another member.Lees, Kirsten (1995) ''Votes for Women: The Australian Story'' St. Leonards: Allen & Unwin, p. 145 Their efforts resulted in wage regulation via the Factory Act of 1896.Sheila Blackburn (1991) ''The Historical Journal'' 34 (1) 43-64 "Ideology and Social Policy: The Origins of the Trade Boards Act" Britain The National Anti-Sweating ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sweatshop
A sweatshop or sweat factory is a crowded workplace with very poor, socially unacceptable or illegal working conditions. Some illegal working conditions include poor ventilation, little to no breaks, inadequate work space, insufficient lighting, or uncomfortably/dangerously high or low temperatures. The work may be difficult, tiresome, dangerous, climatically challenging or underpaid. Workers in sweatshops may work long hours with unfair wages, regardless of laws mandating overtime pay or a minimum wage; child labor laws may also be violated. Women make up 85 to 90% of sweatshop workers and may be forced by employers to take birth control and routine pregnancy tests to avoid supporting maternity leave or providing health benefits. The Fair Labor Association's "2006 Annual Public Report" inspected factories for FLA compliance in 18 countries including Bangladesh, El Salvador, Colombia, Guatemala, Malaysia, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, China, India, Vietnam, Honduras, Indonesia, Brazil, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor
Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor, Viscountess Astor, (19 May 1879 – 2 May 1964) was an American-born British politician who was the first woman seated as a Member of Parliament (MP), serving from 1919 to 1945. Astor's first husband was American Robert Gould Shaw II; the couple separated after four years and divorced in 1903. She moved to England and married Waldorf Astor. After her husband succeeded to the peerage and entered the House of Lords, she entered politics as a member of the Conservative Party and won his former seat of Plymouth Sutton in 1919, becoming the first woman to sit as an MP in the House of Commons. She served in Parliament until 1945, when she was persuaded to step down. Astor has been criticised for her antisemitism and sympathetic view of Nazism. Early life Nancy Witcher Langhorne was born at the Langhorne House in Danville, Virginia. She was the eighth of eleven children born to railroad businessman Chiswell Dabney Langhorne and Nancy Witcher Keene. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minimum Wage
A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. Because minimum wages increase the cost of labor, companies often try to avoid minimum wage laws by using gig workers, by moving labor to locations with lower or nonexistent minimum wages, or by automating job functions. The movement for minimum wages was first motivated as a way to stop the exploitation of workers in sweatshops, by employers who were thought to have unfair bargaining power over them. Over time, minimum wages came to be seen as a way to help lower-income families. Modern national laws enforcing compulsory union membership which prescribed minimum wages for their members were first passed in New Zealand in 1894. Although minimum wage laws are now in effect in many jurisdictions, differences of opinion exist about the benefit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reform Movements
A reform movement or reformism is a type of social movement that aims to bring a social or also a political system closer to the community's ideal. A reform movement is distinguished from more radical social movements such as revolutionary movements which reject those old ideals, in that the ideas are often grounded in liberalism, although they may be rooted in socialist (specifically, social democratic) or religious concepts. Some rely on personal transformation; others rely on small collectives, such as Mahatma Gandhi's spinning wheel and the self-sustaining village economy, as a mode of social change. Reactionary movements, which can arise against any of these, attempt to put things back the way they were before any successes the new reform movement(s) enjoyed, or to prevent any such successes. United Kingdom After two decades of intensely conservative rule, the logjam broke in the late 1820s with the repeal of obsolete restrictions on Nonconformists, followed by the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anti-sweatshop Movement
Anti-sweatshop movement refers to campaigns to improve the conditions of workers in sweatshops, i.e. manufacturing places characterized by low wages, poor working conditions and often child labor. It started in the 19th century in industrialized countries such as the United States, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom to improve the conditions of workers in those countries.Sheila Blackburn (1991) ''The Historical Journal'' 34 (1) 43-64 "Ideology and Social Policy: The Origins of the Trade Boards Act" History Some of the earliest sweatshop critics were found in the 19th-century abolitionist movement that had originally coalesced in opposition to chattel slavery, and many abolitionists saw similarities between slavery and sweatshop work. As slavery was successively outlawed in industrial countries between 1794 (in France) and 1865 (in the United States), some abolitionists sought to broaden the anti-slavery consensus to include other forms of harsh labor, including sweatsh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state in Australia (28 per km2). Victoria is bordered by New South Wales to the north and South Australia to the west, and is bounded by the Bass Strait to the south (with the exception of a small land border with Tasmania located along Boundary Islet), the Great Australian Bight portion of the Southern Ocean to the southwest, and the Tasman Sea (a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean) to the southeast. The state encompasses a range of climates and geographical features from its temperate coastal and central regions to the Victorian Alps in the northeast and the semi-arid north-west. The majority of the Victorian population is concentrated in the central-south area surrounding Port Phillip Bay, and in particular within the metropolit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trade Boards Act 1909
The Trade Boards Act 1909 was a piece of social legislation passed in the United Kingdom in 1909. It provided for the creation of boards which could set minimum wage criteria that were legally enforceable. It was expanded and updated in the Trade Boards Act 1918. The main provision was to set minimum wages in certain trades with historically low wages, often due to a surplus of available workers due to the widespread employment of workers or lack of skills needed for employment. At first it applied to four industries: chain-making, ready-made tailoring, paper-box making, machine-made lace making, and finishing trades. It was later expanded in 1912: mining and then to other industries with a preponderance of unskilled manual labour. Debates Winston Churchill, MP, put the argument for the legislation as follows: See also *UK labour law *Trade Boards Act 1918 *Wages Councils Act 1945 *National Minimum Wage Act 1998 *S Webb and B Webb, ''Industrial Democracy'' (1898) *Liberal ref ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Shann
George Shann (28 October 1876 – 2 January 1919) was a British politician. Born in Knaresborough, Shann grew up in Bradford. He began working half-time in a spinning mill at the age of ten, then five years later moved to a woolcombing mill. He studied in his limited spare time, and won a scholarship to the Bradford Technical College, where he excelled; in 1896, he attended the University of Aberdeen, again on a prize scholarship, and from 1898, he was at the University of Glasgow, graduating in economics.David E. Martin, "Shann, George", ''Dictionary of Labour Biography'', vol.II, pp.339-340 In Glasgow, Shann worked as warden of the student settlement, and this experience inspired him to join the Fabian Society. He moved to Birmingham in 1904, lecturing at the University of Birmingham, and teaching at the Woodbrooke Settlement. He was also elected as a Labour Party member of King's Norton Urban District Council. In his spare time, Shann campaigned against sweatshops, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Reid Macarthur
Mary Reid Anderson (née Macarthur; 13 August 1880 – 1 January 1921) was a Scottish suffragist (although at odds with the national groups who were willing to let a minority of women gain the franchise) and was a leading trades unionist. She was the general secretary of the Women's Trade Union League and was involved in the formation of the National Federation of Women Workers and National Anti-Sweating League. In 1910, Macarthur led the women chain makers of Cradley Heath to victory in their fight for a minimum wage and led a strike to force employers to implement the rise. Around 1901, Macarthur became a trade unionist after hearing a speech made by John Turner about how badly some workers were being treated by their employers. She became secretary of the Ayr branch of the Shop Assistants' Union, and her interest in this union led to her work for the improvement of women's labour conditions. In 1902 Mary became friends with Margaret Bondfield who encouraged her to atten ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minimum Wage
A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. Because minimum wages increase the cost of labor, companies often try to avoid minimum wage laws by using gig workers, by moving labor to locations with lower or nonexistent minimum wages, or by automating job functions. The movement for minimum wages was first motivated as a way to stop the exploitation of workers in sweatshops, by employers who were thought to have unfair bargaining power over them. Over time, minimum wages came to be seen as a way to help lower-income families. Modern national laws enforcing compulsory union membership which prescribed minimum wages for their members were first passed in New Zealand in 1894. Although minimum wage laws are now in effect in many jurisdictions, differences of opinion exist about the benefit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alfred George Gardiner
Alfred George Gardiner (2 June 1865 – 3 March 1946) was an English journalist, editor and author. His essays, written under the alias "Alpha of the Plough", are highly regarded. He was also Chairman of the National Anti-Sweating League, an advocacy group which campaigned for a minimum wage in industry. Early life Gardiner was born in Chelmsford, the son of Henry James Gardiner, a cabinet-maker and alcoholic, and his wife, Susanna Taylor. As a boy he worked at the ''Chelmsford Chronicle'' and the ''Bournemouth Directory''. He joined the ''Lancashire Telegraph, Northern Daily Telegraph'' in 1887 which had been founded the year before by Thomas Purvis Ritzema. In 1899, he was appointed editor of the ''Blackburn Weekly Telegraph''. Editor of the ''Daily News'' In 1902 Ritzema was named general manager of the ''Daily News (UK), Daily News''. Needing an editor, he turned to his young protégé to fill the role. The choice soon proved a great success; under Gardiner's direction, it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trade Union
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (such as holiday, health care, and retirement), improving working conditions, improving safety standards, establishing complaint procedures, developing rules governing status of employees (rules governing promotions, just-cause conditions for termination) and protecting the integrity of their trade through the increased bargaining power wielded by solidarity among workers. Trade unions typically fund their head office and legal team functions through regularly imposed fees called ''union dues''. The delegate staff of the trade union representation in the workforce are usually made up of workplace volunteers who are often appointed by members in democratic elections. The trade union, through an elected leadership and bargaining committee, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
