ABSTRACT
One of the most notable features of the development of the wave of industrial unrest in the British car plants from the 1950s has been its apparent discrimination between firms. Despite the sharp slump of 1960 and 1961, the strike-liability of the minor firms has continued to rise: their proportion of both strike-frequency and striker-days is more than a quarter of the totals for all the firms together. The strike-efforts, at least, of workers in the minor firms seem to be directed at keeping up in the earnings league rather than at defending issues of principle, such as those which surround union recognition and organization. The Engineering Employers’ Federation is an organization of some 4,500 firms employing more than one-and-a-half million workers in the British metalworking industries other than shipbuilding and shiprepairing. In spite of the unavoidable untidiness in the division of what is such a small number of firms, the distinction between the groups remains meaningful for the purpose.
