ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION Over the past few years the British shipbuilding and ship-repairing industry has become known for its troublesome strikes. Statistical support for this notion can be found in Ministry of Labour figures which show that in the decade from 1949 to 1958 only coal-mining had a higher yearly average number of stoppages, and no other industry lost as many days per thousand employees as did shipbuilding and ship-repairing. After the war the loss of working days in shipbuilding tended to fall, but 1954 saw the start of an upward trend which continued throughout the rest of the decade. Part of this rise was due to three nation-wide strikes; one in 1954 and another in 1957 involved all shipbuilding workers, and one in 1960 only apprentices. Despite the importance of these highly organized encounters between unions and employers, the typical strike has been the small local stoppage of limited duration and effect. These local stoppages were nearly always conducted without the approval or the initial leadership of the permanent local or national trade union officials. On the North-East coast, for example, at least 90 per cent of all such disputes during 1946-1961 were started in this way, and could thus be regarded as unofficial.2
