1892-93. A dispute in the cotton spinning trade in the Oldham and surrounding districts against a proposed reduction in wages of 5% involved 5o,000 workpeople and lasted for twenty weeks. It was terminated by the famous "Brooklands agreement," which provided for a reduction of about 3%, and also contained rules for the settlement of future disputes by conciliation methods.
1895. The last considerable dispute in the boot and shoe indus try occurred in this year. At the end of the dispute a series of conciliation and arbitration boards were set up, which have suc cessfully settled all disputes in the industry for more than 30 years, with a few insignificant exceptions.
1911-12. A series of disputes, more or less inter-connected, occurred in the transport trades in this year, seamen, dock and other transport workers, and railway men being affected. There was also a strike, followed by a lock-out, in the cotton weaving industry in Lancashire in these years, which were, indeed, full of industrial disturbance.
1919. There was a three-weeks' strike in the cotton trade of Lancashire and the adjoining counties, both the spinning and the weaving branches being affected. The operatives obtained the advance (of 30% on list prices) which they had asked for, and a reduction in the working hours from 551 a week to 48 (instead of 461 as asked).
1921. The cotton operatives resisted a severe reduction in list piece rates ; a modified reduction was eventually accepted.
1926. The so-called general strike of this year was called by the general council of the Trades Union congress in support of the coal miners ; it was terminated at the end of nine days. The men called out included railway and transport workers, the printing and paper trade unions, some branches of the metal and engineer ing and of the building trade workers, and some other classes; and it was intimated that other classes of workers would be called out later, if necessary. This has been the only instance so far in Great Britain of a general strike ; though there had been a strike of the kind in Dublin in 1913, involving about 20,000 work people. One of the principal objects of the Trade Disputes and Trade Unions Act, 1927, was to prevent the recurrence of a general strike ; though the Act also limits the right of picketing, forbids civil servants to belong to trade unions having political objects, and requires members of trade unions who desire to sup port the political funds of their unions to "contract in," instead (as previously) of requiring those who objected to contributing to those funds to "contract out," i.e., apply for exemption.
There was a great increase in 1919 and 192o, years of great industrial disturbance in many countries; and a return in later years to more normal figures, as will be seen from the following table:— A national strike of railway employees on all the French rail ways in 1910 was brought to an end in little more than a week by the issue of mobilization orders to all the reservists on the railways. In recent years a noticeable feature of the strike statistics in France has been a tendency to strike among employees of public bodies.
The following table gives particulars of the numbers of dis putes, numbers of workpeople affected (including agricultural and non-manual workers), and aggregate duration of disputes in Ger many in the years 1919-26. Stoppages due to political motives (e.g., the Kapp putsch, and the occupation of the Ruhr) are excluded.