The summer of 1849 was especially hot in “misintelligence” between manufacturers and workers in Lisbon. In August, it was wage demands from carpenters and polishers in the furniture industry that caused the paint spill, but did not lead to a strike. Later, there was a demonstration by shipwrights from a shipyard on the Tagus, who “did not want to make holes” because they considered that this was the work of the caulkers. And on September 10, in the factories of Boavista, began what could have been the first “factory” – or “modern” strike, in the words of sociologist José Barreto – in Portugal.
For ten days, blacksmiths, locksmiths and turners in four factories refused to work at night, an old custom when the days grew shorter. In the mid-19th century, Boavista, a neighborhood between the Tagus, Rua da Boavista and Largo do Conde Barão, in Lisbon, was home to foundries, ironworks and gas factories. It was, in fact, in two of the Boavista factories, Collares and Phenix, that the first steam engines in portugal. The 1940s of that century was a time of great industrial growth, which made it possible to lower the prices of products and raise wages “considerably”, says José Barreto, in an article published in 1981 in the journal Análise Social, where he describes the events of those ten days of September 1849.
But ScheduleAlthough they had been significantly reduced compared to previous years —at the beginning of that century they lasted from 4 to 22 hours—, they were still demanding: in spring and summer they were sun to sun; from September to April, with the shortest days, ranged from dawn until 8:00 p.m.meaning that workers were required to “one hour of compensatory overtime” (expression used for night work in winter after sunset). In other words, in 1849, “there was still work 14 and 15 hours a day in various workshops in Lisbon”.
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Source: Observadora
