On this day in 1913, the Dublin Lock-Out began as hundreds of tram workers went out on strike, growing into one of most significant industrial disputes in Irish history. It involved ~20,000 workers and 300 colluding employers, and led to the founding of the Irish Citizen Army (ICA) to protect worker demonstrations.

In the years leading up to the strike, the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union (ITGWU) had been seeking to unionize and radicalize the Irish workforce. Founded by socialist revolutionary James Larkin in 1908, the ITGWU was one of the first Irish unions that catered to both skilled and unskilled workers.

In July 1913, three hundred businesses (led by capitalist William Martin Murphy) agreed to not allow the ITGWU to unionize the Dublin workforce. Murphy dismissed hundreds of workers of suspected of union membership soon after.

Many employers in Dublin then locked out their own employees, affecting tens of thousands of Irish workers, many of whom were already the poorest in the United Kingdom.

After outbreaks of violence between striking workers and strike-breakers occurred, James Connolly, Larkin and ex-British Army Captain Jack White formed a worker’s militia, the Irish Citizen Army, to protect workers’ demonstrations.

The lock-out concluded in early 1914, when the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in Britain rejected Larkin and Connolly’s request for a sympathetic strike. Most workers, many of whom were on the brink of starvation, went back to work and signed pledges not to join the ITGWU, which was further weakened when Larkin fled to the United States and James Connolly was executed following the 1916 Easter Rising.

Many of the blacklisted workers joined the British Army, having no other source of pay to support their families, and quickly found themselves in the trenches of World War I. ITGWU eventually recovered and gained strength after WWI; by 1920 the ITGWU was Ireland’s largest union with 120,000 members, compared with its pre-war peak of 24,135 at the start of January 1913.

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  • GalaxyBrain [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    6·
    4 days ago

    So the super for the building my work is in is this old dude who thinks the building is his fiefdom and it just a petty little prick whp fucking patrols around the building all day. I mentioned a week or so ago when the new dude at work finally had to deal with him. He was vaping while sitting on the curb outside the building, he came up and said ‘hey idiot! There no smoking here!’. I’ve had it out hard with him a couple times for similar reasons where he’s come at me super aggressive about minor stuff or stuff that isnt even under my control. He didnt like that we had a key to the back door, I would have to imagine we got it when the business started renting the place. But he decided to lay into me because he saw me using it. I didnt see why it was an issue and told him that someone must have given us the key, it’s not like we somehow had one made and also i’m not the person to address these issues to. He also got mad when a drip over the dish pit turned out to be an ac leak and I didnt try to call the owner about it at 11 at night when I didnt know it was a problem. It stopped when we stopped using the machine and it was a humid day, we figured it was condensation from the steam from the dish machine and went home. He wanted someone to point the finger at and went for our dishwasher who was a bit of a high strung guy so I handled the explanation and he started going off on me. Bear in mind im still in service and he’s in my way as well. I explained the thought process and he didnt find that satisfactory and kept yelling at me. So I told him that’s how it is and him being upset wont change anything. He told me I was giving him attitude. I congratulated him for picking up on that and the feeling is mutual and then went on to say I have work to do and he’s in my way. He said he’d be talking to my boss, my boss has been dealing with this fuck for a decade, I knew I wasnt gonna face consequences. This is just 3 of a long string of incidents…

    So today, when the new guy was on a smoke break, he saw the guy hanging out a window with a mirror in his hand looking through it to see through the next window over, when he looked down and noticed he got caught he snapped inside. I desperately hope this is on camera. What a fucking creep