Civic strength by unionising

Introduction

Victorian Bournemouth (201) reviews instances during the 1880s when cabmen combined to challenge the town’s Improvement Commissioners. They illustrate how combination amongst working people, while feared by their respectable counterparts less than thirty years earlier, appeared to have a recognised role within commercial and social negotiation.

Victorian Bournemouth (201): background

Technology

Before the railway reached Bournemouth, travel to the resort would have terminated within its centre. Much of the town’s vacation buildings lay within the valley containing the Bourne brook. The social profile of early visitors, gentry and above, meant that most visitors would have gone about town using carriages, rented from livery stables. The main opportunity for cabs lay in transporting travellers to and from the stations, each built on the highlands overlooking the valley. As construction spread either side of the valley, a second opportunity for cabs emerged: travel within the town. The numbers of cabbies and proprietors increased during the 1870s and 1880s, so that the 1891 census listed 57 of the latter. As already reviewed, the arrival of this new transport method, its owners and operators, not only entered the commercial life of the town but also its society. 

Trouble

From their introduction, however, cabbies attracted adverse comment. At first, customers complained about the level and random nature of prices. Thereafter, the Improvement Commission entered an abrasive, lengthy war with the drivers and also the proprietors. The local authority introduced two concepts to impose controls. These consisted of recognised cab-stands and driver licences. The main purpose of cab-stands lay in preventing drivers from cruising for fares, bothering pedestrians. Driver licences in part addressed the problem of erratic fares. Nevertheless, each control spawned a set of problems. The location of cab-stands had an impact on values of adjacent property. Furthermore, they created groups of waiting drivers, who threw wolf-whistles and bad language at female tourists, for the most part belonging to a different social group. The requirement to display badges, proof of licence, caused constant trouble during the 1880s. It appears to have driven cabbies to combine into a union.  

Victorian Bournemouth (201): combination

Benefit society

By the 1880s, cabmen exhibited instances of cooperative behaviour designed to protect their social condition. In common with such community groups as the Oddfellows and Foresters in Bournemouth, cabmen took to holding an annual dinner. The ‘usual dinner’ for 1886 attracted over 300 attendees, who sat down to eat in the Large Town Hall. Advertisements appeared before the dinners asking the public to avoid using cabs on the appointed day. The same year, cabbies voted to establish a Slate Fund. This acted as a mutual benefit group whereby members contributing had chances to sweep the pool through an organised system. Once again, with this practice of combination for self-improvement or protection, the cabbies operated akin to Bournemouth’s other benefit groups. The occupation encouraged competitive behaviour amongst participants, for example, cruising for fares away from the cab-stand. Nevertheless, the annual dinner and Slate Fund shows they could cooperate for mutual benefit. 

Union

In 1884, the cabbies applied combination towards political ends. They formed a union. Leaders of three unions based in London travelled to Bournemouth to speak at the meeting. The union would enable cabbies ‘to have their grievances properly represented and brought before the Commissioners’. The press report stated that the move towards unionisation had received its impetus because of several bye-laws passed by the Improvement Commission. These ‘were strongly commented upon’ at the public meeting. Speakers offered an olive branch to the Commission in promising that a union would ‘improve the class of carriages’. The meeting resolved to put the association on ‘a proper basis’. Thus, the local authority’s interference in commercial matters invoked a political response from the cabmen. Furthermore, the union participated in local politics when it offered comment on Bournemouth’s possible incorporation. They supported it because they thought the Borough would treat them better.

Victorian Bournemouth (201): participants

Working cabmen

The press report about the formation of the cabmen’s Slate Fund listed several names. Identification for most has emerged. All belonged to the trade, coming from humble backgrounds. Several appear to have spent little time working in Bournemouth, soon leaving for elsewhere. This applied to both Willie Whitlock and John Etheridge. Frederick Tubbs, who stayed, perhaps did not prosper, for he became employed as a coachman. The census listings show that most of them managed their businesses as cab proprietors. In some cases, perhaps, as owners they would also drive their vehicles, but others may have employed a number of drivers. This suggests that the union may have emerged from the efforts of men whose primary efforts lay in maintaining and encouraging the growth of their business category. Thus, they may have differed somewhat from a combination formed by agricultural labours whose interest lay in wage protection.

‘Joe Weathercock’

Local populist politician, Joseph Cutler, appeared to have spotted an opportunity in championing the cause on behalf of the cabmen. A contentious individual within Bournemouth politics, Cutler had developed a reputation for changeability as signalled by his nickname of ‘Joe Weathercock’. Although the group’s combining appears to have involved working men, Cutler participated at an early stage. In his early years, he laboured on building sites, but he soon stepped up to become one of Bournemouth’s main contractors. The issue of cabmen’s badges seems to have attracted him as a platform for his political life. It enabled him to berate the other Improvement Commissioners. By keeping the matter alive, he secured a continuous presence in press reports. Cutler made speeches defending the cabmen, then more speeches in defence of his action. He wrote to the press. Becoming president of the Slate Fund also helped to secure his popularity.

Takeaway

Victorian Bournemouth (201) has followed the efforts of cab proprietors and cabbies to secure their livelihood from this new business category by social and political combination. Their combination resembled in part a benefit society, but also a political lobbying group willing to comment on current issues. Their organised opposition caused the Improvement Commission to drop their efforts to enforce the practice of badge wearing. In their success, they attracted the attention of an established local politician. 

References

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