‘All the wheels stand still, if your mighty arm wills it…‘ It is the iconic slogan with accompanying cartoon by Albert Hahn (see below) with which the railway strikes of 1903 are still remembered. The wheels that were supposed to set the trains in motion were blocked for three days by the ‘mighty arm’ of the worker. The issue at stake was the right to join a trade union.
The strike, which ended on the night of January 31 to February 1, 1903 because the strikers’ demands were met, and a failed follow-up strike in April of the same year, would lead to the criminalization of striking by civil servants and lay the foundation for a broadly organized trade union. The railway strikes were therefore a turning point for the right to strike and the trade union movement.
A brief history lesson: the trade union movement in the early twentieth century consisted of numerous small unions. But in the years following the railway strikes and the subsequent restriction of the right to strike, workers realized that such a fragmented approach was not working. This led to the establishment of the trade union NVV in 1906, a predecessor of the current trade union federation FNV.
Shunter in solidarity with dock workers
The strikes on the railways started in early January in the Amsterdam port, where workers wanted to unite to take a stand against their employers. Some entrepreneurs did not recognize the unions and actively tried to prevent union membership, for example by firing union members and hiring non-members. At other companies, union membership was mandatory. This led to a confrontation when ‘organised’ dock workers from shipbroker WH Müller & Co refused to give goods to employees of the Blauwhoedenveem company, where the workers were ‘disorganised’. Because they persisted in their refusal to work, they were dismissed.
Not much later the strike spread to the railways. On January 29, Dirk Vreeken, a worker at the Dutch Iron Railway Company, refused to shunt a wagon from Amsterdam Central Station to the Blauwhoedenveem company. There was a strike at that company because the employees were not allowed to join a union. The shunter decided in solidarity with the striking port workers not to carry out ‘infected work’. When he was suspended, the strike spread to the railways, where there was already dissatisfaction about poor working conditions.
Workers’ victory becomes defeat
This brought the wheels to a standstill, which took the industrial class completely by surprise. People were terrified of a broader workers’ uprising. The newspapers were full of fearful images of a ‘proletarian revolution’. The government was demanded to take firm action. A national strike threatened, but it did not come to that. The employers gave in: the dismissed strikers were rehired and unions were recognized.
Albert Hahn’s cartoon in the socialist newspaper Het Volk.
The workers celebrated the victory, but the reaction soon followed, which would lead to a major defeat for the workers. The government led by Abraham Kuyper initially tried to keep aloof from the conflict, but was criticized that little had been done to maintain authority. The cabinet of the anti-revolutionary leader worked on laws that criminalized striking for civil servants and employees of utility companies such as the railways. Anyone who dared to stop work, or called for it, could count on a prison sentence.
In response to Kuyper’s plans, the trade union movement and social democracy joined forces to establish the Committee of Defense. At the beginning of April 1903, this committee declared a general strike for the railway and transport sectors to protest against the restriction of the right to strike. That was less successful: the willingness to strike was not as great as in January. This time the army patrolled the tracks. The internal divisions of various factions and unions also affected the workers. Shortly after this failed strike, the Kuyper cabinet managed to make striking a punishable offense. These ‘strangling laws’as the Socialists called them, would remain in force until 1980.
In the near future I will regularly reflect on a historic strike. After all, many of our achievements regarding work – from holidays to an eight-hour working day – are the result of strikes and industrial action. If you know of a strike that should absolutely not be missed, please let me know: [email protected]
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