Workers realised they could only fight ruthless employers and inhuman working conditions by banding together, and so trade unions were born - and fiercely opposed by the owners of industry. The most celebrated pioneers of British trade unionism are the Tolpuddle Martyrs, six Dorset farm labourers deported to Australia for joining a union in 1834. - See more at: http://www.unitetheunion.org/growing-our-union/about-us/history/the-history-of-the-tg/#sthash.EBGZD2NB.dpuf