ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the several available sources to compile its figures on strikes: from individual firms, from the Press, and from official sources such as the Ministry of Labour and the reports of Courts of Inquiry into disputes. Official reports of stoppages make no distinction in any case between ‘days lost’ by workers ‘directly’ and ‘indirectly’ involved in disputes at particular establishments. Disputes over trade union questions in the car firms have been particularly important for the period from the end of the War to 1960. The chapter details the general trend of the car-assembly firms’ dispute-liability and its development, and explores a superficial assessment of the sources of those firms’ particular strike-proneness. Identification of the major issues in car firm strikes, and of how these issues have been changing in relative importance, gives some guidance for further examination of the industry and its labour relations.
