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masses of workers are not mobilized for industrial conflict except for some object which they regard as of first-class importance; and it is exceptional for a strike or lock-out of this magnitude to occur unless all means of reaching a pacific settlement have been exhausted, and unless both employers and workpeople are organized in strong combinations, with great financial resources. All these factors tend to prolong precisely those strikes -in reality a small minority which involve large numbers of workpeople, and thus exaggerate enormously the figure for " aggregate duration." For example, nearly 40% of the aggregate duration of disputes in the building trades was due to the great dispute in the London building trade in 1914, which lasted for more than six months and accounted for about 2,500,000 working days. In the mining and quarrying industry, two-thirds of the total aggregate duration of all the disputes was due to the two great coal strikes of 1912 and of 1920; if these were eliminated, the average number involved in disputes in this group of trades would be reduced from over 3,000 to 1,800, and the average duration from 14 to 8 days. The case is much the same with the other great groups of trades; and, speaking broadly, it may be said that the vast majority of recorded disputes involve comparatively small numbers of workpeople, and last less than a fortnight often indeed, only a few days.

To put the same thing in another way. The number of disputes which had an aggregate duration of 25,000 days and upwards varied, in the period 1904-1:5, from n (in 1904) to 72 (in 1913), with an average of 32, or 5% of the total number of disputes. Yet this 5% of disputes accounted for 65% of the number of work- people involved, and for no less than 86 % of the aggregate duration.

Or again, the number of disputes in which 2,500 workpeople or upwards were involved varied, in the years 1904-13, from a mini- mum of 4 (in 1905 and in 1907) to a maximum of 43 (in 1913), with an average of 18, or less than 3% of the total number of disputes; but this 3 % of disputes accounted for 67 % of the total number of workpeople involved, and for 74% of the aggregate duration.

Some trades are far more subject to industrial disturbance than others; in the building trades the proportion of men who strike or are locked out rarely reaches I % of the total number employed in the industry, and in the clothing trades the proportion is not much higher ; whereas in the coal-mining industry the proportion who strike or are locked out rarely falls below 5 % and frequently rises above 20% in a year.

The mean percentages of workpeople involved in disputes for the years 1904-13 were as follows: Building trades .... .. 0-7

Coal mining

Other mining and quarrying.

Metal engineering and shipbuilding

Textile trades

Clothing trades .... Other trades

21-4

2-2

3-3 6-4

1-3

All Trades 4-4

The statistics of causes show, on the whole, remarkable regularity. Such fluctuations, as there are, are due principally to the prevalence or otherwise of wage disputes. In years of good or improving trade, strikes for advances in wages are numerous; in years of bad and declining trade such strikes become much fewer.

The statistics of results show somewhat less regularity. The principal features of this part of the table are the diminishing pro- portion of disputes settled in favour of the employers, and the

Table 2.

Group of Trades

No. of Disputes

No. of Workpeople involved (Thousands)

Aggregate Duration in Working Days (Thousands of Working Days)

Building Mining and Quarrying Metal Engineering and Shipbuilding. Textile Clothing Transport. Miscellaneous (inclu- ding Employees o f Public A u t h o r i - ties). . ..

Average for all above Trades 1.

119 164

265 107 58 88

260

25 508

1 80 138 19 ISO

68

652 7,067

2,765 2,H3 258 1,230

968

1,061

i, 088

15,083

'Exclusive of the general strike at Dublin in 1913-4. which , cannot be classified under any of the separate trade headings. This strike involved about 20,000 workpeople, and had an aggregate duration of about 1,900,000 working days.

increasing proportion settled by a compromise. In the first half of the period the proportion of disputes settled in favour of the work- people was 24 % on the average ; settled in favour of the employers, 44 % ; and compromised, or partially successful, 32 %. In the second half of the period the corresponding percentages were 26, 28, and 46. It should be noted that the second period includes three or four years of exceptional prosperity, a condition which tends to promote settle- ments in favour of the workpeople ; and that this was followed by the period of the war, when prices were constantly rising and industrial conditions were altogether abnormal.

Table 3 classifies the disputes of the years 1900 to 1920, (a) accord- ing to their causes, and (b) according to their results :

Table 3.

Proportion of Disputes arising on questions of

Proportion of Dis- putes settled

i

3 a

"a

o

IB

1-1 U

a

gS> lp

1

sj

tn _O

a,

O

"a

"O I

4-1 1

.*s

g

3

o _

4-J O

69

3

a

1

w

o

5

y

a

"* 3

a

^n

ot

o

, t |


 * o

g

Q

2

1 1

->

u

u

3

a

E

&

H

^*

>, n

o r".

4_l

3

(2

'3

O

I

iSI

1

s s



H

e

w-

c

H

Per

Per

Per

Per

Per

Per

Per

Per

Per

Per

cent.

cent.

cent.

cent.

cent.

cent.

cent.

cent.

cent.

cent.

1900

68

i

14

17

IOO

31

34

34

i

IOO

1901

63

4

13

20

IOO

26

44

3

IOO

1902

60

5

13

22

IOO

24

47

28

i

IOO

1903

60

4

14

22

IOO

23

48

29

IOO

1904

65

4

13

18

IOO

17

51

32

IOO

1905

66

4

13

17

IOO

20

47

33

IOO

1906

68

3

II

18

IOO

32

37

31

IOO

1907

64

3

14

19

IOO

32

41

27

IOO

1908

62

3

H

21

IOO

20

44

36

IOO

1909

59

6

H

21

IOO

18

46

36

IOO

1910

57

4

15

24

IOO

25

37

38

IOO

1911

64

3

16

17

IOO

25

32

43

IOO

1912

63

3

17

17

IOO

27

31

42

IOO

1913

66

3

16

15

IOO

29

25

46

IOO

1914

63

3

18

16

IOO

25

33

42

IOO

1915

73

2

12

13

IOO

23

37

40

IOO

1916

76

3

12

9

IOO

22

27

51

IOO

1917

73

i

15

ii

IOO

31

20

48

i

IOO

1918

68

2

17

13

IOO

29

21

48

2

IOO

1919

64

II

15

10

IOO

24

22

54

IOO

1920

69

3

15

13

IOO

24

29

47

IOO

Aver-

ages

65

4

14

17

IOO

25

36

39

IOO

II. Principal Disputes. The year 1908 (in contrast to 1907, which was entirely free from any disputes on a great scale) saw three great disputes: (i) a shipbuilding dispute involving 35,000 workpeople, and with an aggregate duration of 1,719,- ooo working days; (2) an engineering dispute on the N.E. coast, involving 11,000 workpeople, and with an aggregate du- ration of 1,706,000 working days; and (3) a dispute in the cot- ton trade, involving 120,000 workpeople, and with an aggre- gate duration of 4,830,000 working days.

In each of these three disputes the workpeople struck against (or were locked out to enforce) a proposal to reduce wages. This was at one time a common and important cause of disputes; the great coal strike of 1893, for example, was against a reduction in wages. During 1910-20 there were few or no disputes of any importance on this ground; in fact, these three disputes in 1908 were the last important disputes arising out of an attempt to reduce wages, until the ship-joiners' dispute, which, beginning in Dec. 1920, was the precursor of a series of strikes or lock- outs culminating in the coal strike of 1921.

In each of the 'three disputes referred to. above, one or more of the trade unions concerned was prepared, before the strike or lock-out occurred, to accept the terms offered by the em- ployers; but in each case one or more other trade unions resisted the reduction. Modified terms offered by the employers were accepted in all three cases.

There were no important disputes in 1909; but in 1910 several prolonged disputes, involving large numbers took place.