[2] During the early 1880s, the council gradually grew in strength, supporting workers in disputes around the docks, while also campaigning for the establishment of a free library in the town, and for better schools for working-class children.
[2] The council grew from 5,000 members in 1889 to 20,000 in 1891, with membership among dockers booming as the union secured a closed shop agreement.
The Shipping Federation opposed the agreement, and ended it in 1893, locking out all workers who held union membership.
By 1898, it claimed to be the second-largest trades council in the UK, and to have the largest number of representatives on local public bodies.
However, when major strikes took place in the city in 1911, the trades council's only role was in raising funds to support the strikers.