In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

STRIKES
British Trade Union Congress announces that at midnight the workers
of the printing, iron, steel, chemical, gas, electric, construction, railway,
and transportation industries will join the coal miners in their strike,
which began on May 1. As a "general strike" with more than two million
participants, it seems to be the realization of an old dream for the
theorists of the Left: the dream of paralyzing society by withdrawing the
support of those labor groups who are the least appreciated and the most
poorly paid.
For several months the political scene in Great Britain has been dominated
by the threat of this event. During the previous year, the owners
of the coal mines announced their intention to increase the length of the
workday (currently seven and a half hours) and simultaneously to lower
wages. [see Timepieces] The miners' unions have not only declared their
unwillingness to even discuss these proposals; they have also replaced
regional agreements, which were keeping wages low, with a nationally
unified tariff treaty. In this situation of irreconcilable conflict, the government
has intervened as arbiter. It has provided subsidies to maintain
the income level of miners, and it has appointed a commission of experts
to conduct an in-depth study of the British coal industry. On March 10,
this commission comes up with a recommendation which, not surprisingly,
has the character of a compromise. It suggests, as an obligation to
be imposed upon the owners, a radical reorganization of production
sites, and it argues against lengthening the workday. On the other side,
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