The State, Trade Unions and Industrial Conflict

Abstract

In the first half of the nineteenth century, trade unions were illegal organizations, although they persisted, especially among craft workers, either secretly or with the tacit acquiescence of employers. The Combination Acts were repealed in 1824, allowing workers the right of free association and encouraging the spread of worker organization. Prosecutions of trade unionists continued, however, through the use of other laws, so that associations and strikes concerned with issues other than wages and hours remained criminal conspiracies at common law.