Embargo strike (1918)
Part of Labor Unions
DateJuly 23 – July 29, 1918 (105 years ago)
Location
United States

The Embargo strike of July 1918, centered in industrial areas of Coventry and Birmingham in England, among munitions workers, involving 15,000 or more men, was not an ordinary dispute with employers, but an organized attempt to force the British government to cancel a particular embargo,[1] which was an order passed by the Ministry of Munitions forbidding four manufacturing forms in Coventry from hiring additional skilled men without Ministry approval. This was to distribute scarce skilled labor more fairly. This caused controversy, and on 23 July 1918 12,000 members of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers and the Tool-makers, and the Steam Engine Makers went on strike, demanding for this embargo to be removed.[2][3]

Then on July 25, the strike expanded to 100,000 munition workers.[4]

On Saturday 27 July 1918 the Government issued a warning that the strikers in this strike must return to work, or they would lose their status as essential war workers and thus become liable to be conscripted into the armed forces. Many industrial workers outside the Embargo Strike organization were opposed to it and stayed at work in loyalty to the nation's war effort.

On Monday 29 July 1918 the strike was called off.[5] There was afterwards a plan for a Government enquiry into the matter.[6]

References

  1. ↑ The Daily Telegraph Saturday 27 July 1918, reprinted on page 28 of The Daily Telegraph Friday 27 July 2018
  2. ↑ "Between Craft and Class". publishing.cdlib.org. Retrieved 2018-08-23.
  3. ↑ "STRIKE OF MUNITIONERS". Ararat Advertiser and Chronicle for the Stawell and Wimmera Districts. 1918-07-25. Retrieved 2023-06-11.
  4. ↑ "VOTE BIGGER STRIKE IN BRITISH PLANTS; Labor Chiefs Representing 300,000 Men Decide on Munitions Tie-up. THREAT TO DRAFT STRIKERS Government Firm In Refusal to Remove Labor Embargo Which Caused the Clash. Refuses to Suspend Embargo. Many Refuse to Join Strike. Strikers Repudiate Committee" (PDF). The New York Times. July 26, 1918. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on June 11, 2023. Retrieved 2023-06-11.
  5. ↑ "BRITISH STRIKERS GIVING UP FIGHT; Birmingham Men and Others Vote to Resume Work in Munition Plants. UNION CHIEFS FOR YIELDING Woolwich Engineers Decide to Go Out Unless Labor Embargo is Removed. Big Meetings in Birmingham. American Advice to Keep Working. Cries Against Churchill" (PDF). The New York Times. 1918-07-29. Archived from the original on June 11, 2023. Retrieved 2023-06-11.
  6. ↑ The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 30 July 1918, reprinted on page 26 of The Daily Telegraph Monday 30 July 2018


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