British police strikes in 1918 and 1919
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The Police Strikes of 1918 and 1919 resulted in the British Government putting before Parliament its proposals for the Police Bill, which established the Police Federation of England and Wales as the representative body for the police. The Bill also barred policemen from belonging to a union or affiliating with any trade body outside of the new Police Federation. This Bill, drafted and passed into law, was as a direct response to the emergence of the National Union of Police and Prison Officers (NUPPO). Their successful strike of 1918, and their threatened strike in June 1919 made it even more imperative to the Government to suppress this union, the position of which was only ever unofficial. Hence on 1 August 1919 the Police Act of 1919 passed into law. Only token opposition from a minority of Labour MPs was voiced in Parliament.
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[edit] Preliminaries
In 1870 it is recorded that police in Newcastle upon Tyne were 'in dispute' with their local Watch Committee over conditions of work and low pay, though there was no withdrawal from duty. Two years later in 1872, 179 men of the Metropolitan Police refused to report for duty. Their refusal was over the poor conditions of their service and low pay the same as those in Newcastle upon Tyne. The policemen that refused duty were back on the beat in a matter of hours. Of the 179 men that refused duty sixty-nine were dismissed from the force the rest were, after apologising for their conduct, were allowed back on duty. The end result was an improvement in the pay and conditions. What was significant about this action was that a precedent had been set; direct action could bring results.
However successful this stoppage was in 1872 it did not lead to a trade union being formed. Indeed the most of the policemen involved in this stoppage would not have considered forming a union. The act of withdrawing from duty was considered as an act of mutiny, which reflects the quasi-military nature of the police. Despite the dismissals in the strike of 1872 members of the Metropolitan Force took part in a further stoppage in July 1890; this time the cause was police pensions. The Government argued that it could not be held to ransom, yet as an illustration of how seriously the Government took the loyalty of the police the Police Pensions Bill (1890) was drafted and rushed through Parliament in a matter of weeks.
[edit] The Crime Act
The Crime Act (1885) had made it illegal for anyone to interfere with a policeman in the course of his duty. Thus anyone calling on a policeman to stop work or support a fellow worker would be guilty of a criminal offence. This slowed down the formation of a union, but did not stop it. The September 1913 issue of the Police Review carried an anonymous letter informing its readers that a union was being formed. Thus in secret policemen began to do the unthinkable and join a union. It had to be done in secret simply because anyone found to be a member was instantly dismissed from the force. However, the fledgling union did strike a cord of appeal and membership grew. On the eve of the strike in 1918 the NUPPO were able to claim a membership of 10000 policemen: the force strength of the Metropolitan Police numbered only 12 000. The establishment of a union amongst the police caused the Commissioner Sir Edward Henry to issue an official police order banning the union and promising instant dismissal to anyone found to be associated with it. The Government also took a hostile stance with regard to the police to having a union. The Home Secretary and the Commissioner assumed that the threat of dismissal from the force and loss of pension rights was an adequate deterrent. Nevertheless, by the August of 1918 the mood of the men was so totally misread that the Metropolitan Police went on strike. Leaving London , the capital, to the mercy of the mob.
[edit] Dismissal of Police Captain Theil
The dismissal of Police Captain Theil, a union member of some prominence was the incident that actually sparked the 1918 strike. He was dismissed on the grounds of his union activities. However, this was only a spark for all the grievances over pay and conditions. The authorities grossly under estimated the strength of support amongst the rank and file for positive action to further their own grievances, and to defend Constable Theil. The day before the strike began Police Superintendents reported at their weekly meeting with the Commissioner that all was quiet in the force.
[edit] The Strike of 1918
The Executive of the NUPPO claimed a rise in pay, improved war bonuses, extension of pension rights to include policemen's widows and a shortening of the pension entitlement period. An allowance for children of school age was demanded. However, the most important point on the table was the official recognition of the NUPPO as the police union. Furthermore, they informed the Authorities that unless their demands were met by midnight on the 29th of August they would call a strike. The strike of 1918 caught the Government off balance at a time of increasing unrest on the domestic scene and internationally at a very precarious period.
[edit] The results
The swiftness of the strike and the solidarity of the men shocked the Government. By the next day, August 30th, 12000 men, which was virtually the whole complement of men in the Metropolitan Force, were on strike. By the morning of the 30th troops had been deployed at key points across the capital. The first imperative of the Government was to get the police back on duty. On the 31st. Lloyd George, who had been in France when the strike started, called a meeting with the Executive of the NUPPO. By the end of the afternoon the strike had been settled. All ranks were to receive an increase of 13 shillings [65p] per week in pensionable pay taking the minimum to 43 shillings [£2.15]. The right to a pension was reduced from thirty years service to twenty-six years service and widows were awarded a pension of 10 shillings [50p]. A war bonus of 12 shillings [60p] per week was granted and a grant of 2 shillings and sixpence [12.½p] for each child of school age was given. Constable Theil was reinstated. All the demands of the NUPPO had been met, except official recognition of the union. In the provinces there had been no strikes. Nevertheless policemen in Manchester threatened to strike: they were offered and accepted the same terms given to the Metropolitan Police. By October, several other police forces around the country had been given pay increases. An immediate consequence of the strike was the increase in union membership it jumped from 10000 in August to 50000 by November 1918.
As far as union recognition was concerned the Prime Minister, Lloyd George, had said that this could not be granted in time of war. The fact that Lloyd George had met, and settled the dispute, with the union leaders was viewed by James Marston the union President as de facto recognition of the union. The Government, by granting the demands made on pay and conditions, implied the promise of union recognition.
As a consequence of the 1918 strike Sir Edward Henry, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police resigned: his replacement was General Sir Nevil Macready a serving soldier. He immediately began reorganising the command structure of the police. As far as Macready was concerned the days of the NUPPO were numbered. He had the comforting knowledge that given the circumstances in which his appointment was made he was to have Carte Blanche in his dealings with the NUPPO and its officials. Macready did nothing to encourage talks with the union. He refused to recognise both James Marston the President and Jack Hayes the General Secretary of NUPPO. As far as Macready was concerned the police had, had a grievance, which was now settled, and NUPPO remained an unofficial body therefore they were not to be dealt with.
In an attempt to circumnavigate the union Macready established Representative Broads for Police officers. By instituting the boards Macready had neither consulted the Government or the Union . The Boards would consist of one delegate from each of the twenty-six divisions within the Metropolitan force all of whom were to be elected by secret ballot. The NUPPO executive demanded once again that the NUPPO be officially recognised. With the approval of the Home Office Macready lifted the ban in Police Orders that barred policemen joining the NUPPO; with the addendum that membership of the union should not interfere with police discipline, or implore policemen to withdraw from duty.
The Government announced that a committee be convened under Lord Desborough that would look at all aspects police forces of England, Wales and Scotland. One of the things it highlighted was the inconsistency in police pay. At the time there was no uniform pay structure for the police. Local Watch Committees were the sole arbiters of police pay. The pay of agricultural workers and unskilled labourers had out stripped that of the police. The Desborough Committee recorded that the pay for the average constable serving in a provincial force with five years service who was married with to children would earn 2 pounds 15 shillings [£2.75], and this included all their allowances, which included rent and a child allowance. The Desborough Committee cited examples that a street sweeper in Newcastle-on-Tyne was on the same rate of pay as a constable in the provincial force. All the rest of the examples, of which there were ten, were paid more. Six of those were higher than the pay of the Metropolitan Police. Therefore, in respect of pay and conditions Lord Desborough was quite sympathetic to the plight of the ordinary policeman. So the pay awards recommended by his committee were quite generous for their day.
By the end of 1918 and into 1919 it seemed that all the unions, large and small, were active in disputes the length and breath of Britain . By mid 1919 there were strikes or the threat of strikes in the docks, the railways and the transport workers. There was a nation wide bakers strike, in Glasgow there was a rent strike by council tenants. In the press there were claims that Bolshevik revolution had arrived in Britain . The Government could not afford the possibility of the police aligning themselves with another union or the TUC. Police loyalty in such a dangerous time was paramount, and the Government was determined that it would not be caught napping a second time.
The Police Bill 1919 was the final piece of legislation the put and end to NUPPO. The Police Bill established the Police Federation to replace the NUPPO. Under the Bills provision NUPPO was outlawed as a representative body for the police. Furthermore the police were forbidden by law from belonging to a trade union. The reaction of the NUPPO was predictable; it was bound to be, considering the content of the Bill. The union had no option but to fight. However, this time it was the union that was to misread the mood of the men: they called for a strike. Out of a force of 18200 men in the Metropolitan Police only 1156 men went on strike.
The tale in Liverpool was a different one however Liverpool City Police supported the strike. In 1919 the complement of the Liverpool City Police was 1874 men of these 954 went on strike. The grievances of policemen in Liverpool were for many years ignored by a local Watch Committee which was noted for it disciplinarian attitude, which helped to fostered the mood for action. The poor conditions in the Liverpool Police were almost legendary amongst other forces in England . On the day the strike started in Liverpool striking policemen formed into ranks and decided to march on police stations around the city in an attempt to persuade those no on strike to join them. Firstly, the police strikers who found themselves coming to blows with fellow officers that had not joined the strike: some of who were union members.
The consequences for the people of Liverpool however were far greater than those in the capital. Left without an affective Police presence public order in some of the working-class areas of Liverpool broke down, and the locals went on a spree of looting and vandalism. This orgy of looting continued for around three or four days before the military aided by non-striking policemen brought the situation under control: at the cost of several lives and more than two hundred arrests for looting. The final outcome of the strike was that every man who had gone on strike, right across the country, was dismissed from their respective forces. Not one striker was reinstated anywhere, and all lost their pension entitlements.
The eventual outcome of the strikes of 1918 and 1919 were beneficial to policemen. Firstly, the police received an increase in pay that doubled their wages. More than this however was that the Government were force to take notice of the police, and their grievances, and in doing so established the Police Federation. Importantly the two strikes by the police had also made the government realise the importance of the police in terms of their own stability. After 1919 the police were never again taken quite as for granted, as they had been prior to 1918.
[edit] Articles
- Jones, Owen. The ‘Spirit of Petrograd’? The 1918 Police Strike. What Next? Journal. Retrieved September 12, 2006.
[edit] Further reading
- Bean, R. Police Unrest, Unionization and the 1919 Strike in Liverpool, Journal of Contemporary History 15, 1980, p.647
- Cronin, J.E. Labour and Society in Britain 1918-1979 (London, 1984)
- Cronin, J.E. Coping with Labour, 1918-1928, in J.E. Cronin and J. Schneer, eds, Social Conflict and the Political Order in Modern Britain (London, 1982).
- Judge, A. and G.W. Reynolds, The Night The Police Went On Strike (London, 1968)
- Wrigley, C. The British Labour Movement in the Decade After the First World War. (Loughborough, 1979)
[edit] Contemporary accounts
- Police and Prison Officers’ Magazine: 2 January 1919, 20 February 1919, 30 April 1919, 21 May 1919, 2 July 1919, 20 August 1919, 3 September 1919.
