Engineering Employers' Federation

London, England organization.

The Employers' Federation of Engineering Associations was established on 24 April 1896. It was effectively a successor to the Iron Trades Employers' Association which had been founded earlier in 1872 but which was dissolved in 1900. By 1899 the Employers' Federation of Engineering Associations had become known as the Engineering Employers' Federation. It kept this title until 1918, when the Federation merged with the National Employers' Federation. Following the merger, the Federation was temporarily called the Engineering and National Employers' Federation, before settling on the Engineering and Allied Employers' National Federation. It retained this title until 1961, when it reverted to the Engineering Employers' Federation (EEF), under which name it continues to operate.

An attempt to form a national federation for engineering employers was initially made in 1889, but the resulting body (the Federation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Employers) was one in which shipbuilding interests were to predominate. The Clyde-Belfast dispute and Clyde lock-out of late 1895 provided further impetus to engineering employers to combine and was the immediate occasion for the moves which led to the Federation's establishment in April 1896. The Federation organised nationwide lock-outs in 1897-8 and 1922. The procedural agreements from these disputes subsequently provided for local and national joint conferences on disputed matters, and the papers surrounding these conferences form an important element of the archive.

The EEF is the largest sector employers' organisation in the United Kingdom. It currently has a membership of nearly 6000 companies and constitutes a nationwide federation, comprised of thirteen regional associations and the Engineering Construction Industry Association.

Reference: E. Wigham, The Power to Manage ((London, 1973).).