The first Penrhyn dispute was the first major strike that took place after the passing of the Conciliation Act of 1896. The North Wales Quarrymen's Union (NWQU) invoked the provisions of the new act in order to obtain the intervention of the Board of Trade in their dispute with Lord Penrhyn, one of the main landowners and quarry owners in Wales. The conflict in the Penrhyn quarry dated back to the 1860s and exhibited many features peculiar to the slate quarrying industry in North Wales. After receiving the union demand, the Board of Trade began a series of meetings with Lord Penrhyn and his employees. The Board considered that a major dispute such as this one, which affected many thousands of people, should be settled by the non-confrontational means laid down in the Conciliation Act. Lord Penhryn, however, strongly rejected any intervention by what he called a "third party". One of the reasons he took such a rigid course was his dislike of the collectivist measures inspired by the New Liberalism in Britain at the turn of the century. In view of the above situation, the Board of Trade gave up its attempt to settle the Penrhyn dispute. As a result, the Penrhyn quarrymen were forced to continue their efforts to establish a procedure for collective bargaining in vain for almost eleven months, until a temporary settlement was concluded. Many scholars have paid attention to this famous dispute because Lord Penrhyn showed his opposition to trade union principles in a way which was very characteristic of Britain in the 1890s, and because his refusal to participate exposed the limits on the power of the Board of Trade to carry out the provisions of the Conciliation Act. In this paper, I would like to reconsider the significance of these limits for the role of government in industrial relations.
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