Lockout (industry)

A lockout is a work stoppage or denial of employment initiated by the management of a company during a labor dispute. In contrast to a strike, in which employees refuse to work, a lockout is initiated by employers or industry owners.

Lockouts are usually implemented by simply refusing to admit employees onto company premises, and may include changing locks or hiring security guards for the premises. Other implementations include a fine for showing up, or a simple refusal of clocking in on the time clock. For these reasons, lockouts are referred to as the antithesis of strikes.

In professional sports in the United States and Canada, the National Football League, Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, and the National Hockey League have all locked out players.

Causes

A lockout is generally an attempt to enforce specific terms of employment upon a group of employees during a dispute. It is often used to convince unionized workers to accept new conditions, such as lower wages. If the union is asking for higher wages, better benefits, or maintaining benefits, a manager may use the threat of a lockout – or an actual lockout – to convince the union to relent.

Examples

Far from all labour disputes involve lockouts (or strikes), but lockouts have been used on a large scale around the world during and after industrialization.