Heroines of trade union movement remembered at Women's Chainmakers' Festival

Sep 14 2009 by Steve Bradley, Birmingham Mail

BUMPER crowds lapped up the sunshine at a Black Country festival celebrating the efforts of heroines of the trade union movement.

The annual Women Chainmakers’ Festival celebrates the achievements of about 800 Cradley Heath women, led by Mary Macarthur, who fought to establish a minimum wage. In 1910, the chainmakers’ success, following a ten-week strike, was a landmark in the history of the national minimum wage.