They agreed that if any employer
hired a comber not in their organization, none of them would work
for him. They also would beat up and destroy the comb-pot of the
outsider. In 1720 and 1749, the Tiverton wool-combers objected to
the import of combed wool from Ireland by burning Irish wool in
clothiers' stores and attacking several houses. They had strike
funds and went on strike in 1749. Their bloody brawls caused the
military to intervene. Then many of them left town in a body,
harming the local industry. The earnings of wool-combers was high,
reaching from 10s. to 12s. a week in 1770, the highest rate of a
weaver.
In 1716, the Colchester weavers accused their employers of taking
on too many apprentices. When the weavers organized and sought to
regulate the weaving trade, a statute was passed in 1725 making
their combinations void. Strike offenses such as house-breaking
and destruction of goods or personal threats had penalties of
transportation for seven years. Still in 1728, the Gloucester
weavers protested against men being employed who had not served
their apprenticeship.
When the journeymen tailors in and around London organized, a
statute made their agreements entering into combinations to
advance their wages to unreasonable prices and to lessen their
usual hours of work illegal and void, because this has encouraged
idleness and increased the number of poor.
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