 He attended many radical political meetings and met prominent radical thinkers of the day, including Karl Marx, George Holyoake, Charles Bradlaugh and Frederic Harrison.He joined the Operative Bricklayers' Society (a New Model Trade Union) in 1859, and played a part in leading the London builders' strike in support of a nine-hour working day.Through his work with the union he became one of the foremost New Model unionists, along with Robert Applegarth and George Potter, but was blacklisted by employers for five years.