Treasury Agreement facts for kids

The Treasury Agreement was a special deal made in March 1915 between the British government and workers' groups called trade unions. This happened during World War I, a very important time in history.

Why Was This Agreement Needed?

When World War I started, Britain quickly realized it wasn't making enough weapons and supplies, called munitions. To make sure the country had enough, the government needed help from the workers and their unions. They wanted to make sure factories could produce as much as possible without any delays.

At first, the government thought about making a law to stop strikes and force workers to settle disagreements. But David Lloyd George, who was in charge of the country's money (the Chancellor of the Exchequer), decided it would be better to ask the unions to agree voluntarily.

Who Was Involved in the Talks?

So, on March 17 and 18, 1915, a meeting was held at the Treasury building. Lloyd George met with leaders from the trade unions. Another important person there was Arthur Balfour.

Lloyd George explained that the government was going to take over factories that made war supplies. He promised that these factories would focus only on making what was needed for the war. He also said that the owners of these factories would not be allowed to make huge amounts of money from the war.

Since the government was going to control how businesses made money, Lloyd George felt it was fair for workers to also make a sacrifice. He asked them to temporarily stop some of their usual union rules that might slow down the making of war supplies. He also suggested that any disagreements should be solved peacefully, without strikes.

What Did the Agreement Say?

After the meeting, the union leaders wrote down their response. This document was given to the government by Arthur Henderson on March 19. Lloyd George and Walter Runciman signed it for the government. Arthur Henderson and Mr. Mosses signed for the trade unions.

The main points of the Treasury Agreement were:

• It temporarily stopped union rules that made it harder to produce war supplies. This was only for the time the war lasted.
• It allowed factories to use less-skilled workers, or even workers who weren't skilled, to do jobs usually done by skilled workers. This was called "diluting" the skilled workforce. But there was a rule: these less-skilled workers had to be paid the same as the skilled workers for the same job.
• Instead of strikes, any disagreements between workers and factory owners would be settled by a neutral third party (called arbitration).
• It limited how much profit factory owners could make from war production.

How the Agreement Was Put into Action

The agreement didn't start right away. The workers wanted to see the government limit the factory owners' profits first. Walter Runciman tried to talk to the factory owners about this, but they didn't agree easily.

Because of this, the ideas from the Treasury Agreement were later made into a law. This law was called the Munitions of War Act, and it was passed in June 1915.