ABSTRACT
Strikes can be official or unofficial, long or short; they can involve thousands of employees or just a few; they can affect workers in particular organisations, occupations or industries or all unionised employees in a general strike. The main providers of information are the news media, government collectors of statistics and, at times, enquiries by conciliators, mediators, arbitrators or courts of inquiry. The use of the word strike-proneness as a casual factor in strikes can also be a source of confusion. In particular one must look at wage-round strikes and strike waves connected with inflation and anti-inflation policies. Such an analysis of major national strikes in Britain reveals that wage-round strikes and other collective bargaining re-negotiation strikes accounted for the particularly large increases in the number of working days lost and of number of workers. As a letting off of steam a one day strike can clear the air and consequently be beneficial to production.
