East London’s radical history is often celebrated in the names of some of its most influential residents: Sylvia Pankhurst, Clement Atlee, Mahatma Gandhi, and Annie Besant were all residents of my constituency of Stratford and Bow. But last week, I was proud to honour some lesser-known heroes – the Matchgirls of the Bryant & May Factory. These young women and girls are rarely listed alongside these great men and women but their courage and struggle for their rights at work was essential to securing the rights that we all enjoy today.
The Matchgirls’ battle for workplace dignity is integral to Britain’s working-class history, a history that is too often left untold. I was proud to honour their memories and tell their story in Parliament.
The Matchgirls, the girls and young women of the Bryant & May Match Factory, endured long hours, pitiful pay, and appalling conditions; they were fined for being late, being untidy, or even for talking. Worst of all, they were being poisoned slowly and painfully by the white phosphorous used to make the matches, which caused painful disfigurement of their jaws. 1,400 of these brave young women walked out on strike in July 1888, lighting the spark of the labour movement. The Matchgirls’ Strike ignited the fire of modern trade unionism in Britain, a movement that is still fighting for safety and fairness at work and standing up for workers, and one that I’m so proud to be part of through my union, GMB.
Commemorating the Matchgirls in Westminster, celebrating how far we’ve come, is a poignant reminder not only of our responsibility to honour the courage of those that pioneered the rights that we enjoy today, but also of our duty to the young women of today’s workforce, still disproportionately struggling with low-paid and insure work.
There are 3.9 million women in the UK in severely insecure work. Characterised by lower pay, fewer hours and last-minute shift changes, insecure work often creates a culture of instability and fear, isolating employees and often leaving them struggling financially. Young women are more likely to work in sectors with high job insecurity and where they don’t feel safe to speak up about poor treatment. And, almost half of women surveyed by the Young Women’s Trust didn’t even know the rights they do have in insecure work.
We cannot risk another generation of young women believing that unfair treatment is just part of the job. It’s this belief – that mistreatment and malpractice must be tolerated – that the Matchgirls stood up against, and which this Labour Government are taking action to change.
Our Employment Rights Bill is just the start. We are delivering the biggest uplift to workers’ rights in a generation, rolling back Tory attacks on unions, cracking down on fire and rehire practices, and banning NDAs that prevent people from speaking up about harassment and discrimination. We are delivering sick pay for 1.3 million of our lowest earners, enhancing workplace protections for pregnant women and new mothers, and taking on the gender pay gap.
Having sat on the Bill Committee for this legislation, hearing from experts and scrutinising the Bill, one thing is clear: enshrining rights in law is not enough. We need effective enforcement. These reforms will be genuinely transformational for working people in Stratford and Bow, which is why I’ll keep arguing for a Fair Work Agency empowered with the resources and authority to investigate and pursue those that exploit and discriminate, so that these landmark reforms truly deliver the protections they promise.
137 years after the Matchgirls went on strike over workplace mistreatment, the fight for rights at work continues.
Its why it’s so powerful to have spoken their names into the formal record in Hansard, 137 years to the week that these women marched to Parliament to demand their rights – a pertinent reminder to us in this place that those who came before us have shaped what we do here today.
Honouring the legacy of the Matchgirls is not just a lesson in our trade union and working-class history but a call to action, a rallying cry that this Labour Government is answering in its fight for security and dignity for a new generation of women and workers.
Commemorating the women of the Matchgirls’ Strike of 1888
