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Miners strike 1910-1911
The miners, traditionally the most combative of the unions, had already in 1908 won the legal recognition of a maximum eight-hour working day.
The miners had a serious strike in for the right to have a minimum wage.
In 1910, Winston Churchill as home secretary was accused by the miners of ordering the shooting of strikers. The accusation followed an incident at Tonypandy, a violent clash between strikers and local police had led to the Chief Constable appealing for troop reinforcements to be sent to help gain control.
Churchill had sent the troop reinforcement, however it was after the worst of the rioting had already occurred, he did not however give them orders to use their weapons.
The strike spreads, 1912
For Asquith's government, the most disturbing feature of the striking miners was their call for sympathetic action throughout the whole industrial workforce. In 1912 the threat grew larger in the summer and the three major unions, the dockers, the railwaymen and the seamen went on strike.
It was calculated that 40 million working days were lost through stoppages in 1912. Lloyd George, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Governments chief negotiator, managed, however, to persuade the railway workers to end their strike in return for a wage increase and recognition by the employers of their union rights.
The triple alliance, 1914
In a further move to appease the miners, the government introduced legislation appointing local district wage boards which were responsible for fixing minimum wages in each region.
The strikes ended by tension remained, by 1914 the miners appeared to be coming together with the dockers and railmen to form a triple alliance. It was unofficial and the three unions did not act as one union.
It was this lack of co ordination among the unions, rather the government conciliation that prevented the threat of a general strike before 1914.
The coming of the war in 1914 brought a temporary halt to the strife.
The challenge of traditional Liberal values
Industrial troubles was the willingness of the government to intervene directly in relationship between employers and workers. It was another example of the extension of state power. It was a development that would soon be hastened by war and which would challenge the thinking of those remaining Liberals who still believed in minimum government and maximum individual liberty.