A very difficult and threatening situation was building up on the Clyde, the largest munitions centre in the country. The Labour Withholding Committee, which conducted the March strike, had reformed itself and became the Clyde Workers' Committee. Its leaders had no interest in supporting the war, but were willing to use the discontent aroused by the passing of the Munitions of War Act and attempts to introduce dilution – the introduction of women, unskilled and semi-skilled men to perform some jobs previously reserved for skilled craftsmen – to support their revolutionary aims to secure control over the means of production by the workers. In the latter part of 1915 a strike had broken out against increased rents, which led to the Rent Restriction Act. Though industrial relations in this important centre of munitions of war now came under the new Ministry, Askwith's department was still keeping a watch on the situation: ‘Two commissioners were sent to Glasgow to inquire into the cause and the circumstances of the apprehended differences affecting the munitions workers in the Clyde district’.

Lloyd George, as Minister of Munitions, went to Glasgow just before Christmas to assess the situation, accompanied by Henderson. Initially the Clyde Workers' Committee was not recognized, but Lloyd George agreed to meet the leaders, who told him that there could be no dilution without giving the workers control of all matters relating to wages, working conditions and the introduction of new labour.