ABSTRACT
By January 1922, a jubilant Shrewsbury Chronicle, although curiously opaque about the situation in its own county, reported the overall decline in union membership: 'In Hampshire alone 40,000 labourers have left their union in six months.' Shropshire wages were reduced by a halfpenny an hour in the February AWB settlement and despite brave resolutions at meetings of both the WU and the NUAW, the trend could not be reversed. Again, Billy Fielding, the NUAW county organiser, put a brave front on a serious situation, applauding: 'a splendid rearguard action to retain the SO and 48 hour week with the half holiday', in the face of 'all kinds of methods and tactics the farmers use to discourage our members'. The programme he announced for the summer of 1922 included 'five large demonstrations with the new county banner, and 40 open air meetings'. But the 'rearguard action' could not prevent wages tumbling, as even the union organisers received a 10 per cent reduction in April. Despite 'crowded meetings' that summer, after harvest, members were faced with a reduction from the previous year of 15s. 9d., to a wage level of 31s. 6d. per week. The frustration of union activists is conveyed in a resolution from the militant Shifnal NUAW branch: 'Instruct our members on the County Committee either to secure an increase of wages and the retention of the 48 hour week, or else to make no agreement whatever, as we cannot allow the union to be responsible for further reductions of wages.'1
