1900–1911

Court decisions hostile to trade unions in the 1890s began with the case of Temperton v. Russell in 1893 when Hull unions were forbidden to try to stop Temperton delivering goods to another firm where there was a dispute. While unions were free from the charge of criminal conspiracy, officials were liable for damages for a civil conspiracy. Blacklisting of employers was also declared illegal. The legal case of Lyons v. Wilkins between 1896 and 1898 tightened what could be done by pickets during strikes. The difficult to define action of ‘watching and besetting’ was illegal. The spate of cases culminated in the Taff Vale judgement that reached the Law Lords in 1901, costing the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants £30,000 in damages and costs. The Taff Vale Railway Company sued the union as a body, and the Law Lords reversed an earlier decision of the court of appeal and accepted that the union was a legal entity capable of being sued. A few weeks later, in Quinn v. Leathem, the Lords granted damages against the Belfast Butchers’ Association for conspiring to damage Leathem, by threatening strike against his customers. The Association had tried to persuade them to impose a boycott on Leathem to get him to dismiss his non-union assistants.