Many children were used as chimney sweeps as they were small enough to climb up inside house chimneys to sweep them of the soot deposits. Others, were co opted into pickpocket gangs, by Fagan types, who knew then, what many know now, regarding children getting a lighter sentence.
Children were put to work down in mines and in factories cleaning machines, while the machines were still working. Mill owners were especially bad for allowing this to happen, resulting in many injuries and deaths. This, of course, happened long before Health and Safety rules were brought in to stop such things occurring.
In the UK the first Factories Acts and Mines Acts were brought in about 1833 onwards. They limited the ages of child labour and the number of hours which children could worked. But there were very few inspectors to cover the huge numbers of mills and small workshops which were springing up all over the Uk forming the Industrial Revolution.
It was only as labour unions began to form up that workers had the power to withdraw their labour in order to get abuses stopped. The first strike involved the Matchstick Girls. Their job was to dip small pieces of wood into a sulphurous mix to make matches. They worked in poisonous conditions and many went blind due to fumes and acids being used. They withdrew their labour to gain better conditions.
That was when unions were actually a good thing. Nowadays, they are just, generally speaking, political, power mad, belligerent users and abusers of their membership!!
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