about a thousand members were recruited -all eager to improve their working conditions. there was opposition, however from a galway employers' federation chaired by the city's leading employer máirtín mór mcdonagh. negotiations between the gwglu and the federation broke down, and 23 employers locked out their 500 workers in march 1912. arbitration brought a settlement acceptable to the locked-out workers in less than a week, and a 'victory' was celebrated in a 2 am march through the streets of the city.