Explain Why The Tuc Called A General Strike In 192 Essay

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Explain why the TUC called a general strike in 1926? Between 1918 and 1923 there were many economic problems facing Britain, which led to the miners not being happy with working pay and conditions. The miners formed a triple alliance with the transport workers and railway men. This means if the miners went on strike, the other 2 would also strike, causing a mass disruption to Britain. The first signs of disruption that led to the general strike was the fact that other countries such as Poland were becoming a more predominant exporter of coal, and the only way to stop Britain’s coal industry was to higher the price of coal, extend miners working hours and reduce pay. Obviously not favoured by the miners. Many British mines were old and needed modernisation, mine owners didn’t want to do this and there was a feeling of the miners wanting the mines to be nationalised. To make matters worse, the government decided to put Britain back on the gold standard, the pre-1914 exchange rate. British coal exports were more costly, this again led to mine owners wanting wage cuts and longer working hours, however these were rejected, this lead to multiple threats of a lockout, were the miners wouldn’t get paid al all as the were not allowed to work. The government then decided to pay the miners and mine owner’s subsidies to stop the working disputes for 9 months. After the Samuel commission was done, both miners and mine owners disagreed with the parts of it and when the government subsidies ended, the mine owners and the unions tried to negotiate a deal, the terms of the deal were later rejected by the miners. As the terms of the deal were rejected, May 1926 miners were then locked out of the mine by the mine owners, but a lot of the trade unions supported the miners, aswell those of the triple alliance. The lockout was bad for the miners because they now didn’t get any

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