ABSTRACT
A comparative study of New Unionism in various countries during the period 1890–1914 implies that there were comparable trade union developments in them. The most easily comparable aspect of New Unionism is the general pattern of trade union growth through discontinuous leaps or explosions. Such leaps occurred in most European trade union movements during the period from the 1880s up to the First World War, though not necessarily at the same time. In certain crucial respects the New Unionism of Great Britain and continental countries are therefore not comparable. A counter-attack, spearheaded by large or newly federated employers, was therefore bound to develop, and it did so from 1890. It wiped out most of the New Unionism, and thus made a second and delayed instalment of the expansion inevitable. It was, after all, hardly conceivable that an industry like the railways would permanently remain without effective unions, except perhaps those of engine-drivers.
