Trade Unions

The idea of a group of people associating for mutual protection and benefit in relation to employment is a common enough one today but this was not always the case. The Industrial Revolution saw the birth of trade unions as we know them today but that birth was met with hostility from both the legislature and the judges. The Combination Acts 1799–1800 made any agreement with the purpose of improving working conditions an offence and imposed criminal sanctions upon those who called or attended a meeting for that purpose, so essentially undermining the very essence of a union. The major legal obstruction to unions during the early part of the nineteenth century was that, as their main purpose was to improve the working conditions of their members, they were seen to be in restraint of trade and therefore illegal if they performed this function. The Combination Laws Repeal Act 1824 meant that unions were not criminal per se, but after a series of strikes the Combination Act 1825 rendered unions criminal except where their sole purpose was the determination of wages or hours. Major advances were made by the introduction of the Trade Union Act 1871 and the Criminal Law Amendment Act of the same year. The former provided that trade union activity was not to be regarded as in restraint of trade, and gave unions the power to enforce certain contracts and hold property. The latter modified the offences of intimidation, obstruction and molestation in relation to trade union activity, but this was thwarted somewhat by the judiciary’s increased use of the offence of criminal conspiracy in relation to industrial action. The Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act 1875 defined the ambits of lawful industrial action and created immunity from criminal conspiracy where the act was done in furtherance of a trade dispute, and was not criminal if done by one person alone.