On Friday week the Shipbuilding Employers' Federation posted notices in
all the federated shipyards on the Clyde and the North-East Coast locking out the members of the Boilermakers' Society from Saturday, September 3rd. The notice, which took most of the men by surprise, is the direct result of the refusal of the members of the Society to abide by the Agreement ratified last year between the Employers' Federation and the various Trade-Unions em- ployed in shipbuilding. A crisis was reached four weeks ago, but was tided over. Now, however, in consequence of breaches of the Agreement—notably two cases on the Tyne and the Clyde, where the men repudiated arrangements made on their behalf by their chosen leaders as official representa- tives—the employers have taken the grave step of locking out some thirty thousand men in order to put an end to the sectional disputes and stoppages of work, which have averaged one a day since August 16th.
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