The punishment for creating a trade union was imprisonment. Regardless of this law, some joined trade unions anyway, along with creating strikes and riots. The reason that the unemployed rioted was because they wanted to have a “revenge” on the ones that were working because they felt that their jobs were taken by them. The employed fought to raise their wages and improve their working conditions. Both the employed and unemployed rioted by destroying machinery. In the 1800's, the lives of this class started to improve. It eventually became no longer illegal to form trade unions.