The Worker's Strike
In about 1128 BC, the first recorded strike in history took place among the workers of Deir-El Medina. According to archaeological and secondary sources, wages were delayed by half a month, and at one stage by half a year. A distressed and angered, impoverished community of village workers where their rations were their living, were infuriated by their treatment under Ramesses III’s, stopped working and protested outside the walls of the mortuary temple to the west of the village of Deir-El Medina, to highlight their distress place upon Ramesses III’s construction programme at Thebes, which depleted the grain reserves used to pay the workmen of the royal Necropolis. This situation illuminated the flaws of what seemed to be a perfect society, revealing the similarities of flaws that we know today.
This situation was exacerbated by the effects of corrupt administrators of the time, reducing the grain rations intolerably, leaving their workers of the village to crumble. Scribe Neferhotep around Ramesses 25th year states ‘One and a half khar of grain (about 168lbs) have been taken from us…we are dying, we cannot live…” expressed the concerns and desperation of the workmen, arising dispute amongst the community. This archaeological evidence shows the propelling of the world’s first labour dispute. Egyptologist John Romer’s source interpretation of evidence from the inscriptions “We are impoverished. All the supplies for us that are from the treasury, the granary, and the storehouse have allowed to be exhausted. The stone [of the Palace of Beauty] is not light. One and a half hundredweight of grain has been taken away from us…[i.e. is missing from the ration] … make for us a means of keeping alive … we are dying, we do not live at all”- J. Romer, Ancient Lives: The Story of the Pharaohs’ Tombmakers, Book Club Associates, 1984, pg. 116. This extract supports the ancient inscriptions, clearly outlining the importance of the affair and how it affects the livelihood of the people.
In the summer of Ramesses’ III 29th year as pharaoh, c. 1165 BC, official complaints were being received about the situation to the Temple of Horemheb, personally delivered by scribe Amennakhte. ‘Payments were ultimately delayed due to poor conditions and later that same year, men of the two gangs stopped work and marched together to one of the royal mortuary temples (Tuthmosis III) where they staged what would now be called a sit-in or a protest’- (Pharaoh’s workforce: the village of Deir-El Medina, no author present). These actions were repeated in the coming days within compound of another temple, where priests and scribes recorded the accounts of workmen’s, which were then sent to administrators in Thebes. Only then were rations distributed to the distressed workmen. The events of this strike would be repeated until the end of Ramesses III reign was over.
This was an indication of the economic crisis in Egypt, affecting the priveledged workers of Deir-El Medina who wouldn’t accept the terms of this economic climate and were willing to challenge the economic deter.
John Romer also comments that the village worker’s victory resulted in the rise of rations that however, caused conflict within the community due to class division (scribes + police vs. the workers) and inflation of trade values and rising prices (wheat became more valuable than silver, increasing conflict of trade interest between people).
Extracts scribed by priests and scribes of the workmen’s accounts of the worker’s strike can be found here: http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/texts/turin_strike_papyrus.htm (Records of the strike at Deir el Medina under Ramses III)
This situation was exacerbated by the effects of corrupt administrators of the time, reducing the grain rations intolerably, leaving their workers of the village to crumble. Scribe Neferhotep around Ramesses 25th year states ‘One and a half khar of grain (about 168lbs) have been taken from us…we are dying, we cannot live…” expressed the concerns and desperation of the workmen, arising dispute amongst the community. This archaeological evidence shows the propelling of the world’s first labour dispute. Egyptologist John Romer’s source interpretation of evidence from the inscriptions “We are impoverished. All the supplies for us that are from the treasury, the granary, and the storehouse have allowed to be exhausted. The stone [of the Palace of Beauty] is not light. One and a half hundredweight of grain has been taken away from us…[i.e. is missing from the ration] … make for us a means of keeping alive … we are dying, we do not live at all”- J. Romer, Ancient Lives: The Story of the Pharaohs’ Tombmakers, Book Club Associates, 1984, pg. 116. This extract supports the ancient inscriptions, clearly outlining the importance of the affair and how it affects the livelihood of the people.
In the summer of Ramesses’ III 29th year as pharaoh, c. 1165 BC, official complaints were being received about the situation to the Temple of Horemheb, personally delivered by scribe Amennakhte. ‘Payments were ultimately delayed due to poor conditions and later that same year, men of the two gangs stopped work and marched together to one of the royal mortuary temples (Tuthmosis III) where they staged what would now be called a sit-in or a protest’- (Pharaoh’s workforce: the village of Deir-El Medina, no author present). These actions were repeated in the coming days within compound of another temple, where priests and scribes recorded the accounts of workmen’s, which were then sent to administrators in Thebes. Only then were rations distributed to the distressed workmen. The events of this strike would be repeated until the end of Ramesses III reign was over.
This was an indication of the economic crisis in Egypt, affecting the priveledged workers of Deir-El Medina who wouldn’t accept the terms of this economic climate and were willing to challenge the economic deter.
John Romer also comments that the village worker’s victory resulted in the rise of rations that however, caused conflict within the community due to class division (scribes + police vs. the workers) and inflation of trade values and rising prices (wheat became more valuable than silver, increasing conflict of trade interest between people).
Extracts scribed by priests and scribes of the workmen’s accounts of the worker’s strike can be found here: http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/texts/turin_strike_papyrus.htm (Records of the strike at Deir el Medina under Ramses III)