Trade Unions and the Engineering Industry Dispute at Barrow-in-Furness, 1897–98

Abstract

The lock-out and strike in the British engineering industry, which took place between July 1897 and January 1898, was one of the most bitter and protracted labour disputes of the 1890s. As “the first major national strike or lock-out in British history”,1 a dispute set against the turbulent background of “new unionism” and socialist influences within the 91,500-strong Amalgamated Society of Engineers, and fought over the issues of working hours, the rights of employers in their own “shops” and the vexed question of the introduction of technical improvements into the industry, the conflict had great political and economic significance.2