Strikes and Lock-Outs

The following table gives the percentages of workpeople directly involved in disputes involving stoppages of work, with the results, for Great Britain and North Ireland, 1918-27:— were generally small if the number of disputes only be considered, but very wide if the number of workpeople involved be taken into account. Thus, the number of workpeople involved in disputes that were settled by conciliation or arbitration varied from 1.2% to 68.5%; and the number involved in disputes settled by "other" methods from o•o% to 69.o per cent. This was a very exceptional case, in 1912, the great coal mining dispute of that year having been settled by legislation.

Organization of Strikes and Lock-outs.

In the great major ity of cases strikes are organized and controlled by trade unions. It does not, however, follow from this that the growth of trade unionism has always fostered and encouraged strikes, there being evidence that in many trades the strengthening of organization has had the effect, not only of restraining ill-considered partial stop pages, but also of preventing more serious dislocations of industry by providing a channel for the expression of grievances and a recognised means of negotiating with employers. It is indeed gen erally considered that the industrial conditions most favourable to peace are when a powerful trade union is face to face with a representative employers' association, both under the guidance of strong but moderate leaders and neither feeling it beneath its dignity to treat on equal terms with the other.

Whether, however, trade unionism tends generally to encourage or to restrain strikes, the organization and policy of the great majority of trade unions, as at present constituted, are based on the possibility of a collective withdrawal from work in the last resort. Dispute-pay is consequently the one universal form of trade-union benefit, and the strength of a trade union's strike-pay resources are among the factors which determine whether a dis pute will be pressed to a stoppage and, if so, how long the stop page, both sides proving recalcitrant, will last.

Although most strikes are controlled by trade unions, cases are comparatively rare in Great Britain in which the central commit tee of a trade union takes the initiative and directs its members to cease work. More usually a local strike movement is initiated by the local workmen, and the central committee is generally em powered by the rules to refuse its sanction to a strike and to close it at its discretion, but has no authority to order it. In many unions a ballot is taken of the members of the districts affected before a strike is authorized, and a two-thirds (or even greater) majority, either of members or of branches, in favour of a stop page may be required before the sanction of the central executive is granted.

When a strike has been authorized by the executive, the con duct of it is frequently entrusted to a "strike committee," ap pointed ad hoc, one reason being that a strike of any considerable dimensions often affects members of several unions, so that the common action necessary in a conflict with employers can only be attained by a committee representing all the societies involved.

The financial support of a local or sectional strike imposes but little strain on the resources of a large society, but where a con siderable proportion of the members are affected it is usual for a union to replenish its funds by imposing a "levy" or special con tribution on members remaining at work. Financial support is often asked and secured from other unions and loans from finan cial institutions such as the Co-operative Wholesale Bank, have become increasingly a resort of impoverished trade unions during a prolonged and embarrassing dispute.

For an account of the legal powers of combinations of employers and of workpeople in the matter of declaring and conducting strikes and lock-outs the reader should turn to TRADE UNIONS. For an account of the voluntary machinery for the prevention and settlement of trade disputes without recourse to stoppage see ARBITRATION ; INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS. For machinery of the State for similar purposes see COURT OF ARBITRATION.

Important British Trade Disputes.

Space will only permit of the mention of a very few of the most important disputes; and for the same reason, and also owing to the paucity of information for earlier disputes, it has been necessary to restrict reference to disputes occurring since 1888. Scanty records of strikes and lock outs are indeed extant going back even as far as the year 1765; but in these very early years, and indeed much later, strikes were often demonstrations conducted by desperate and very imper fectly organized men in defiance of the law, and having some thing of the character (and often some of the personal conse quences to the leaders) of a political rising. They are altogether different from the typical strike or lock-out of modern times. • Coal-mining.—In 1893 the coal owners of Yorkshire, Lanca shire, and the Midlands demanded a reduction of 25% off the "standard" (equivalent to about 18% off the then current rates of wages), which the Miners' Federation refused to accept. The stoppage began on July I and lasted till Nov. 17, when it was settled by the intervention of the Government. The men resumed work at the old rate of wages until Feb. I, 1894, after which date wages were to be regulated by a conciliation board, consisting of equal numbers of coal owners' and of miners' representatives, with an independent chairman.