Singer strike, 1911

Conversations between members of Glasgow Labour History Workshop and former Singer employees, discussing working conditions and the strike at the Singer sewing machine plant in Clydebank, Scotland, March / April 1911.
Clydeside industrialists began to introduce scientific management practices in 1910. The Singer sewing machine plant in Clydebank became the site of the first explicit confrontation between capital and labour in Scotland resulting from the ensuing reorganisation of work processes. Within two days of twelve female cabinet polishers going on strike, the Singer works became paralysed as the majority of the 11,000 workforce joined in.

The Scottish Oral History Centre (SOHC) was set up within the Department of History at the University of Strathclyde in 1995. Since its foundation the SOHC has been involved in a wide range of teaching, research and outreach activities designed primarily to encourage the use of ‘best practice’ oral history methodology in Scotland. Until 2005, the SOHC was directed by Professor Callum Brown, since then by Professor Arthur McIvor.

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The Scottish Oral History Centre (SOHC) was set up within the Department of History at the University of Strathclyde in 1995. Since its foundation the SOHC has been involved in a wide range of teaching, research and outreach activities designed primarily to encourage the use of ‘best practice’ oral history methodology in Scotland. Until 2005, the SOHC was directed by Professor Callum Brown, since then by Professor Arthur McIvor.

Created by Anna-K Mayer, 26 January 2017.

The project materials were not accompanied by paperwork. Poor sound quality despite enhancement work resulted in SOHC 2/2 not being transcribed. Following transcription it was discovered by accident that an edited transcript of SOHC 2/3 had appeared in print in 1990; photocopy placed in SOHC 2 Admin File./akm February 2017

Current location sound recordings: Baird 27.1./akm February 2017

Transferred in 2015 and 2016 from SOHC. The project had not been assigned a SOHC Archive ID. The original recordings were made in 1988 using a cassette recorder. In 2016, they were digitised to uncompressed, unaltered 24 bit/96kHz BWF format for preservation. Enhancements were made to improve sound quality when necessary and 16bit/48kHz MP3 copies created for access.

This collection is part of the Scottish Oral History Centre Archive.

published