THE FINANCIAL COSTS AND RETURNS OF STRIKES
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.1982.tb00101.x |
| Date | 01 July 1982 |
| Author | John Gennard |
| Published date | 01 July 1982 |
THE
FINANCIAL COSTS AND RETURNS OF STRIKES’
JOHN
GENNARD’
‘Next to the study of their causes, the assessment
of
the results
of
strikes whether in the short
or
long
term, seems a question of the greatest practical interest and the most tantalizing
theoretical difficulties’. (Knowles
Strikes,
Blackwell,
1952,
p.
240)
A
view has developed that the balance of market advantage in collective bargaining
has moved markedly in favour
of
the trade unions and therefore, by implication, that
workers generally ‘win’ strikes.* However, not since Knowles’ work3 has an
assessment of the results of strikes in the UK been published; the author is aware of
only one empirical study in this area and that relates to the experiences
of
strikers in
British C~lumbia.~ There has been much work on the development of techniques to
assess the costs and benefits of strike action to the parties involved and Fisher’s
publication in
1973
greatly advanced the analytical aspects of the assessors ‘success’ or
‘failure’ of strikes and/or the net codbenefit
of
such a~tion.~ Nevertheless, little
empirical data has been produced on the actual cost
of
strike action in the UK and
comment
is
still largely based on crude calculations and a priori reasoning. This paper
aims to do two things. Firstly, it provides some empirical estimates
of
the costs and
returns to individuals directly involved in strike action. Secondly, it discusses the
problems involved in arriving at such calculations.
PREVIOUS STUDIES
OF
THE
RESULTS
OF
STRIKES
Before
1943
the Ministry
of
Labour published statistics of the results
of
strikes in
terms
of
three categories
-
strikes settled in favour
of
workers, strikes settled in
favour of employers, and strikes settled by compromise. Knowles‘ related these
statistics to those factors which might be thought to influence strike results, for
example, unemployment, union organisation, and certain features
of
the strikes
themselves
-
their length, size and frequency.
He
found that in the inter-war years
there was a tendency for employers to win a growing proportion
of
strikes outright and
for compromises to wane.
He
found that in the inter-war years there was
prima
facie
indication that, when there had been a high proportion
of
employer victories in
strikes, the strikes had tended to
be
few, small and long; when there had been a high
proportion of workers’ victories
or
of compromises, strikes had tended to be
numerous, big and short. He concluded that more could not be asserted, for the
differences were mostly too slight to be of statistical significance. However, Knowles’
work did not provide evidence on the financial costs and benefits that were incurred by
the employer and individual strikers.
More recently attempts have been made to assess the results for strikers by
calculating the pay back period for the average striker involved in
a
particular strike.
This involves calculating the wages lost by the average striker for the period
of
the
stoppage had he/she accepted the employers’ last pre-strike offer. Using the
settlement wage, a calculation
is
then made of the number of years required to recoup
the lost wages. Using this procedure Cyriox and Oakeshott estimated that the average
*
Professor of Industrial Relations, the University
of
Strathclyde.
247
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