Sheffield Outrages

In British history, sensational reports in the national press 1866 exemplifying summary justice exercised by trade unions to secure subscriptions and obtain compliance with rules by threats, removal of tools, sabotage of equipment at work, and assaults.

Dramatic accounts of action taken against a strike-breaking worker in the cutlery trade – blowing up the house of a blackleg saw-grinder with gunpowder – led to a Royal Commission inquiry into trade-union activity. This coincided with a campaign by trade unionists to obtain the reform of the Master and Servant Act, which discriminated between employer and employee in cases of breach of contract. The result was publication of Majority and Minority Reports that favoured the legalization of trade unions, and the repeal of the Master and Servant Act.

This was implemented in the Trade Union Act and the Criminal Law Amendment Act, both 1871.