The Ragtag Daily Prompt for today is labor. Labor unions are a vanishing breed these days, particularly in the United States, where corporate interests have instilled negative and often false information about unions in the American public. Several states have busted unions and then became “right to work” states. This euphemism is meant to be a positive alternative to labor unions – after all, you won’t have to pay union dues! But in fact, “right to work” means “right to work” for low wages, “right to work” for no raises, “right to work” for no health insurance, “right to work” for no vacation. “Right to work” is the antithesis of the role labor unions have traditionally played to protect workers’ rights:

Most of the things labor unions won for the American worker we now take for granted. Yet, the corporate interests who want to destroy labor unions want to substitute the “benevolence” of one’s boss to provide whatever benefits he/she wants. Because many companies provide paid vacation, health insurance, etc., these things have become a standard to which most companies will adhere in order to be able to attract good employees. Still, “right to work” laws pose a great threat to the rights and benefits workers have.  Let’s look at some history…

At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in Europe, working conditions were appalling. Child labor was common. I am reposting here a post from my blog We Are Such Stuff IV, which is devoted to my family history. My 4-greats grandfather, I found out from research, worked for some years as a coal miner in England at the end of the 18th century. Just as a reminder of how far we’ve come in protecting workers since that time, this is what life was like for young coal miners. (Note: to see the sources I used for this account, please see the original post:  Trappers, Hurriers, and Hewers: Working in a Coal Mine.)

The Industrial Revolution really got its start in Great Britain during the second half of the eighteenth century. A great many workers were needed in the burgeoning factories and in coal mines to provide the fuel for the factory machinery. Our ancestor came of age in the late 1700s, and would have been accustomed to working to help provide for his family – with a widowed mother and several siblings, there was no other option. Many jobs were available, although working conditions were appalling.


Thomas Thomas’ (my ancestor) early life, his employment – first as a shepherd, later as a coal miner – is mentioned in family held sources, but we have no details of how old he was when he took each of these jobs. Clearly, working in a coal mine would have been chosen out of necessity – it must have paid a lot better than herding sheep. He might have been sixteen to eighteen years old at the time, or he may have been younger. Surely people knew something about working conditions in mines – even today, these conditions are quite severe – but would have been attracted by the abundance of need for workers and the higher salary offered. However, children as young as five were employed in mines and they received merely a cent or two per day.

If Thomas was in his mid to late teens at the time of his taking the job at a coal mine, he would have been assigned to any number of jobs requiring strength and perseverance, including “hurriers” and “hewers”. …

Hewers

As the demand for coal increased, the mines went deeper and deeper, reaching up to two kilometers below the surface. The deeper they went, the more dangerous they became. Once a seam of coal was located, it was mined horizontally. This meant that miners often were forced to work lying down.

Flooding was one of many dangers in the mines, and children often had to work in water up to their thighs while underground. Poisonous gas escaping or causing explosions was another. Explosive gas, called fire damp, would be found the deeper the miners got. One spark from a miner’s axe or candle could lead to disaster.

To clear the mines of gas, a crude ventilation system was used: The job of “trappers”, most often young children, was to sit underground, opening and closing trap doors located across the mine. These trap doors allowed coal trucks through, but also caused drafts which could spread a cloud of noxious gas. The mine owners believed the system of trap doors might help the blast of an explosion from damaging more of the mine (their first concern was their investment, not their workers!). Unfortunately, this system was very ineffective and there were many accidents.

Child trapper
A third serious danger was the threat of collapse: Mines were only held up by wooden beams, and the sheer weight of the ground above a mined coal seam led to many pit collapses.

A report on deaths in coal mines to Parliament gave a list of ways miners could be killed: falling down a mine shaft, being hit by falling coal, being crushed to death in collapse, explosions, suffocation due to poisonous gas leaks, and being run over by a tram carrying dug coal.

In spite of these dangers, demand for child labor was great as coal production increased. Whole families worked in the mines. Besides trappers, coal “hurriers” pulled carts filled with coal over long distances and through very narrow tunnels. These coal carts could weigh as much as 500 lbs., and they were hauled using chains attached to the worker’s waist; or two men would be employed, one in front to pull and one behind to push.

Hurriers

They would exit the mine via the trap doors, held open by the trappers. Girls were often used for this work, because their smaller bodies could fit through tighter spots than their male counterparts. Men and boys were often “hewers”, using pick axes to cut the coal from the seam. …

From the scant information I have about that period of his life, I estimate that my ancestor could have been working as a coal miner for ten years or more. With the harsh conditions and hazards of this work, it is no wonder that [having Sundays off] would have been a welcome respite!