THE MATCHGIRLS STRIKE

Streaming service Netflix has finally released the long-awaited sequel to Enola Holmes 2 and it entered the top 10 immediately after dropping over the weekend. In order to solve the missing girl's case, Enola established a detective agency and engaged detectives to investigate the disappearance of Sarah Chapman. Sarah Chapman worked at a matchstick factory and her younger sister Bessie reported her missing.? Sarah is on a mission to expose the matchstick factory that the girls work at, since they are poisoned with white phosphorus. So who exactly was Sarah Chapman? And what did she do in the Matchgirls' Strike??

The girls were on strike in 1888 despite receiving very little compensation for their efforts, because of the dangerous and unrelenting demands they faced from Bryant and May factories.? The demanding physicality of the job took its toll on many of the girls since they started their work life at thirteen. The healthy profits made by the factory were unsurprising, particularly as the girls had to have their own supplies such as brushes and paint whilst also being forced to pay the boys who provided the frames for boxing up the matches.

Factory Acts were created to protect workers from some of the more extreme industrial conditions through legislation such as this inhumane sweatshop system. The production of match sticks involved dipping the sticks, made from poplar or pine wood, into a solution made up of many ingredients including phosphorus, antimony sulfide and potassium chlorate. Within this mixture, there were variations in the percentage of white phosphorus however the use of it in production would prove to be extremely dangerous.?

Because the company was fully aware of the serious health consequences of "phossy jaw", they instructed employees to have their teeth removed if they complained of an ache. If they refused, they could be fired.? Its production line continued to employ thousands of women and girls, most of them of Irish descent and from poor neighborhoods in the surrounding area, despite little desire to change and little desire to compromise on profits.?

The walkout grew into a full-scale strike of around 1500 workers after the unfair dismissal of one of the match girls in July 1888. Such a display of defiance was met with great public sympathy as those who saw them pass by cheered and offered their support.?

Furthermore, Besant's appeal fund was successful in raising many donations, including from powerful organizations such as the London Trades Council. There was also an effect of the strike in 1891 when the Salvation Army built a new match factory in the Bow area that offered better wages and conditions and did not use white phosphorus.?

Sadly, the extra costs incurred by changing many of the processes and the abolition of child labour resulted in the failure of the business. Also, the strike led to the creation of a union for women, which was extremely rare since female workers were not often unionized after the war.?

There was much more to be done in the industrial setting after the 1888 match girl strike, but the strike had led to important changes. A tangible outcome of the campaign was perhaps the awareness that was generated among the public regarding the conditions, lives, and health of many of the poorest in society whose neighborhoods were very different from those of Westminster's decision makers.?