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.
