Lengthy Strikes: Do they Influence the Duration of Peace in the Future?
| Published date | 01 March 1991 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/01425459110140157 |
| Pages | 29-32 |
| Date | 01 March 1991 |
| Author | Toni M. Somers,Yash P. Gupta,Arthur W. Smith |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
LENGTHY STRIKES: DO THEY INFLUENCE THE DURATION OF PEACE IN THE FUTURE? 29
T
he extent to which length of strike may
affect the duration of the subsequent
peace may be useful to those who
conduct negotiations.
Lengthy
Strikes:
Do
they Influence
the Duration
of
Peace
in the
Future?
Toni M. Somers, Yash P. Gupta and
Arthur W. Smith
Employee Relations, Vol. 13 No. 3, 1991. pp. 29-32
© MCB University Press. 0142-5455
During the 1960s and 1970s an upsurge in the number
of
worker-days lost to strikes was witnessed in western
manufacturing and service industries. However, in the
1980s and 1990s, owing to escalating international
competition, declining membership and government
regulations, the labour unions are experiencing
a
dramatic
decline in their power. The result has been that their
orientation has changed to some degree as they seek to
maintain recognition in industries that are no longer
insulated from economic and market forces. In general,
unions have recently been much more willing to accept
compromises and trade-offs than in the past.
Concomitantly, well-known researchers have started
voicing their concerns about the failure of American
managers to manage the workforce in a positive manner.
They argue that management must develop and implement
human resource management strategies which could nullify
organisational dysfunctions such as absenteeism, poor
morale and employee turnover[1,2].
Abemathy and Corcoran[3] warned that to strive for higher
profits without considering the interests of workers will
have a serious negative impact
in
the
long
run;
subsequent
correction of the situation can be very difficult. For
example, in 1983 Chrysler's successful efforts to reduce
the work-in-process inventory were achieved without first
gaining the support and full co-operation of its workers.
This initially resulted in an unexpected single strike which
was ultimately responsible for shutting down the firm's
entire manufacturing network within eight days, costing
Chrysler $80 million[4].
Review of Literature
The duration of
strikes
has been studied
by
several authors
(for example, see[5-9]) using models that have been
developed to study other social phenomena such the
length of time between successive stoppages[10-11], the
job duration between successive changes in employ-
ment[12-14],
and the length of
time
spent in hospital with
schizophrenia[15]. Lancaster[6], using 840 observations
from the United Kingdom, visualised two parties in a
dispute as being separated by a distance at the outset of
a strike. As the strike progresses the gap between the
parties changes as new factors enter the situation; its
closure is associated with the ending of the strike. The
objective of most of the studies reported, which examine
the duration of the strike, is to deal with the question:
"How does time already spent on strike affect the
additional time yet to be spent on it?"
Gramm[16] examined the forces influencing both unions'
willingness to strike and employers' willingness to resist,
using data describing 1,050 negotiations in US
manufacturing organisations. Her results indicated that
strike incidence is influenced by the gender composition
of the labourforce, demand fluctuations in the product
market, location in a
right-to-work
state, the number of
workers in the bargaining unit, union density in the
industry, and the extent to which wages kept pace with
inflation over the prior contract period. Similar results were
obtained
by
studies which have examined militancy among
school teachers[17,18].
An examination of the above literature indicates that the
research on labour management negotiations has
concentrated on:
● studying the duration of
strikes —
the relationship
between the length of time elapsed from the
beginning of a strike and the additional time yet to
be spent on strike;
● establishing the factors which determine the
incidence and severity of strikes.
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