Miners' strike of 1905
The miners' strike of 1905 was the second major strike by miners in the Ruhr mining industry .
prehistory
After the strike of 1889 , the miners began to organize in unions . In addition to the free trade union-oriented “Old Association” (1889), the “Union of Christian Miners” (1894) emerged as part of the Christian trade union movement and a Polish professional association (1902). These three were the largest organizations in the Ruhr area. In contrast, the number of workers organized in the liberal Hirsch-Duncker trade union was small. In total in 1905 about 60% of all miners were unionized.
The background to the strike of 1905 was, among other things, the wage level, which was below that of 1899, poor health care and inadequate hygiene, the closure of mines, extension of working hours, not counting inadequately filled dogs on wages ("Wagennullen"). The criticism was directed against the mining companies , the mining association and the coal syndicate .
Attempts by the unions to negotiate better terms and prevent work stoppages failed.
course
The strike began in November 1904 on one of Hugo Stinnes' collieries at Bruchstrasse near Bochum , and this company was almost completely on strike from January 10, 1905. The immediate trigger was a half-hour extension of working hours due to early entry times. The attempt by the trade unions to use calls to prevent a general strike failed. Within a few days, the movement spread to the whole area. On January 11th, 50,000 workers took part.
As the movement grew, a conference of the four unions took place on January 12th. The aim was not to lose control of the movement and to develop a common strategy. A joint strike committee of seven was formed, chaired by Johann Effert . In addition, a 14-point catalog of complaints and claims to the address of the Mining Association was resolved.
Because the employers refused to give in, a general strike was decided on January 16 . On January 19, 200,000 of the 268,000 miners in the Ruhr area took part. The employers refused to negotiate with the strikers. Their uncompromising attitude met with criticism in the press, in the state parliament, in the Reichstag and in parts of the civil service. Otto Hue , member of the Reichstag and chairman of the Old Association, spoke in the Reichstag about the situation in the Ruhr mining industry. The Prussian government set up a commission to investigate the complaints and announced the amendment of the mining law. The strikers broke off their strike on February 7th as strike support could no longer be paid and retailers were less and less willing to lend strikers credit. The unions also rated the announced amendment to the law as a success.
Results
The amendment to the Mining Act of June 1905 abolished "zeroing", limited the unpaid import and export time to a maximum of 30 minutes, also limited the possibility of overtime and for the first time prescribed workers' committees .
literature
- Gerald D. Feldman : Hugo Stinnes - biography of an industrialist, 1870-1924 . Beck, Munich 1998, ISBN 978-3-406-43582-9 , pp. 100-113.
- Franz Osterroth; Dieter Schuster: Chronicle of the German Social Democracy. Berlin, 1975 digitized
- Dieter Schuster : Chronology of the German trade union movement from the beginnings to 1918. Bonn, 2000 digitized .
- Gerhard Taddey (ed.): Lexicon of German history . People, events, institutions. From the turn of the times to the end of the 2nd World War. 2nd, revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-520-81302-5 , p. 1068.