ABSTRACT
That conflict is basic to industrial relations is a proposition echoed by scholars of diverse disciplinary backgrounds and normative conviction. The systems analyst views it as ubiquitous, but ultimately as a form of deviant behaviour, and hence focuses upon rule-making processes for tension management and grievance resolution. Pluralists and Marxists see it as endemic in industrial societies with substantial private sectors (the former stress interest-group divisions and the latter the cleavages based on social class). And most would concur with Faucheux and Rojot (1979: 36) that ‘conflict is the motive force of the industrial relations system’, since its various processes are essentially designed to contain labour unrest. To commence the account of comparative themes with industrial conflict is thus scarcely contentious and involves an explanation of strike patterns and a number of other forms of worker protest.
