Strike days dip

The number of workers who took strike action last year dipped to their lowest level in recorded history, figures published yesterday (August 2) have shown.

In 2015, only 81,000 people downed tools, a drastic downturn from 2014, when 733,300 workers took strike action.

Only 170,000 days were lost to strike action last year, which accounted for just 0.003 per cent of all working days and was the second lowest since records began in 1893. Last year’s figures were in sharp contrast to previous periods in history – in 1979, nearly 30m days were lost to strike action amid the ‘winter of discontent’ and in 1926, after the general strike more than 162m days were lost.

The vast majority of strikes last year – 70 per cent – involved disputes relating to pay, with actions over redundancies being the second most common.

Most strikes – 60 per cent – lasted no more than three days, with about a third lasting only one day.

Transport and storage was the sector involved in the greatest number of disputes last year, followed by public administration/defence and education.

TUC general secretary Frances O’ Grady said that latest figures show that “going on strike is always a last resort when your employer won’t negotiate and won’t compromise.

Far less common

“Strikes are far less common these days and tend to be short,” she added. “Most strikes are about people demanding fair pay, which is unsurprising given that real wages have fallen off a cliff in the past decade.

“Good industrial relations depend on fair wages and decent rights at work,” O’Grady went on to say. “The new prime minister has spoken about raising wages – now it’s time to live up to that promise.”

The latest figures on industrial disputes come against a backdrop in which the trade union Act – designed to restrict the right to strike – has just been made law.

But none of these provisions, including strike thresholds and tighter rules on picketing among other measures, have yet gone into effect.

Unite argues that the record low numbers of strikes taken last year proves that the divisive trade union Act pushed through by the Tory government was completely needless.

“This all-time low in strike days undermines the whole premise of the flawed trade union Act which was promoted as necessary legislation needed to curb strike-hungry trade unions,” a Unite spokesperson has said. “These figures prove this is patently not the case.

“The vast majority of industrial disputes are settled by sensible negotiations between employers and unions, and only ever reach the strike stage when unreasonable bosses dig in their heels. Trade union members only take strike action as a last resort.

“The trade union Act should be repealed as it has been shown to be an ideologically-driven piece of law-making and nothing to do with the maintenance of good industrial relations. It was a sop to the virulent anti-trade unionists on the Tory backbenches who won’t be happy until every piece of worker protection is done away with.”

@hajera_unite