ABSTRACT
The working class, since the time of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, has, through its struggles with both employers, Tory, Liberal and Labour Governments, developed and strengthened the trade unions and working-class political organisations. They have won the right to vote in local and national elections, and have won this right for women as well as for men, and reduced the voting age to eighteen years. The struggles in the engineering industry over the years show clearly the opposition of the employers to the workers' efforts to win some control over their industrial life, and they also show the progress that has been made. Following the gains made by the workers at the turn of the century, the 1922 dispute - in which the employers locked out all members of engineering trade unions. This resulted in the unions being forced to accept the 1922 Procedure for Avoidance of Disputes - the York Memorandum.
