Christine Blower Headlines at Chainmakers Festival

General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, Christine Blower is to be the main speaker at the 2009 Women Chainmakers' Festival which returns for its fifth year at the Black Country Living Museum, Dudley on Saturday 12th September, 2009.


Blower, who was elected as Deputy General Secretary of the NUT in 1997 joined the union as a student and has been a career-long NUT member. She has held the post of President and Secretary of the NUT in Hammersmith and Fulham and had a 33 year career in teaching.


Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers said: “It is a great privilege to be speaking at this festival. The courage and determination shown by the women chainmakers to demand a decent living wage is a message that is as relevant today as it was nearly 100 years ago. The campaign to make the minimum wage a living must still go on.”


Blower led a one day strike over teacher’s pay in 2005, the first national strike by the union for over 20 years. She has also criticised government plans to fast track unemployed executives into teaching in six months.


The Women Chainmakers' Festival celebrates the pioneering work of the women Chainmakers of Cradley Heath through music, drama, dance, poetry and performance and 'flies the banner' for the historically important role of women within Britain's working and industrial heritage.


The 1910 Women Chainmakers' dispute was a significant moment in labour history with hundreds of low paid women, earning pitiful wages for their work, successfully prosecuting a dispute which laid the foundations for today's National Minimum Wage.


Emma Middleton, Marketing Manager for the Black Country Living Museum said: “We are enormously pleased Christine Blower has agreed to speak at the 2009 festival. It is, we believe, a recognition of the importance of the women chainmakers' strike and the festival and raises the awareness of the role played by women worldwide in the workforce.”

Festival Signs Up Headline Act

Robb Johnson, one of the finest singer/songwriters working in the UK today, along with his band the Irregulars will be this year’s headline act at the Women Chainmakers’ Festival which takes place on Saturday 12th September, 2009 at the Black Country Living Museum.

 Robb and the Irregulars were voted the Daily Telegraph’s Folk Album of 1998 and Johnson is recognised by many as "Britain's finest songwriter of the last decade" for songs that are "incisive, clever and witty and you can sing them on your way to work". Together with the Irregulars Johnson plays solid no-nonsense rock ballads with a folk edge and counts former cabinet minister, Tony Benn, amongst his fans.



The Women Chainmakers’ Festival is the only event in the country specifically celebrating the achievement of women in the workplace. Mary Macarthur’s vision and the 1910 'Lock Out' by the women chainmakers was an historically significant moment, focusing the world’s attention upon the country’s lowest paid workers. The women’s landmark victory laid the legislative foundation upon which today’s national minimum wage is built. It also led to the building of the Cradley Heath Worker’s Institute which was saved from demolition and has been rebuilt at the Black Country Living Museum.

Emma Middleton, Marketing Manager said: “The Black Country Living Museum is delighted to welcome Robb and the Irregulars to the Women Chainmakers’ Festival and we very much hope it will be the first of many visits. The Festival aims to continue the Macarthur vision and promote, support and inspire the positive role of women in the workforce. Robb and the Irregulars will bring a new dimension to celebrating the 1910 women chainmakers’ dispute.”