This also led some New Model Unions to actually restrict apprenticeships to their trade, hoping to prevent falls in wages by keeping available labour scarce.
Akin to earlier Friendly Societies, members of New Model Trade Unions received benefits in times of need, such as during periods of illness, injury and unemployment.
In January 1852, the union threatened strike action when engineering employers introduced systematic overtime and began to increase the numbers of unskilled workers in the trade.
In response, the employers instituted a lockout, refusing to allow workers to return until they signed an agreement by which they renounced membership of any Trade Unions.
After three months, the ASE was defeated and its members signed the employers' agreement, although the vast majority continued their membership of the union in secret.