Among the other disputes there were five involving 5,000 or more workpeople and four which involved a loss of 50,000 or more working days.

Following is a list of principal disputes which began in 1937:

Waterproof garment workers-Manchester and Sal- May 10-June 4..

3,000

ford.

51,000

1 Disputes thus indicated involved only the mines or works of a single firm.

The dates of stoppages varied at different collieries, the majority of workpeople involved being idle for less than a week.

3 Including Grays, Chelmsford, Luton, Bedford, Hitchin, and Aylesbury.

Including Norwich, Cambridge, Newmarket, and Cromer.

June 28-June 29.

560 6,500

6,000 8, 500

June 23-July 5.

770

8, 500

MAGNITUDE

In the table below the disputes of 1937 are analyzed from three different aspects of magnitude, viz, numbers of workpeople involved, duration in weeks, and aggregate duration in working days. It should be observed that the figures in this table relate only to disputes beginning in 1937, and take account of time lost in 1938 through such of these disputes as continued beyond the end of the year; they therefore differ from the figures given in the table quoted on page 139. The total number of workpeople involved in these disputes beginning in 1937 was about 597,000, while the aggregate duration of the disputes, including time lost in 1938, was about 3,136,000 working days.

As has been pointed out in previous reviews, most of the disputes which occur affect only the employees of single firms, and are of comparatively short duration. The above table shows that in 1937 of the 1,129 recorded disputes, 708 (or nearly 63 percent) involved less than 250 workpeople in each case, and in only 11 cases was the number 5,000 or more. There were, moreover, 818 disputes (over 72 percent of the total) which lasted for less than 1 week, while only 63 disputes (less than 6 percent of the total) were protracted to 4 weeks or over.

As regards the aggregate duration of disputes (i. e., number of workpeople multiplied by the number of working days), it will be seen that 9 disputes (involving about 167,000 workpeople) accounted for nearly 1,650,000 working days, or over one-half of the total time lost through disputes beginning in 1937.

CAUSES

The numbers and proportions of disputes in 1937, and of workpeople directly involved therein, arising from the principal classes of causes, are given below. In some cases disputes originate from more than one cause, e. g., a claim for an advance in wages may be accompanied by a claim for a reduction in working hours. For the purpose of the statistics such disputes are classified according to what appears to be the principal cause of the stoppage.

Wage questions as a whole accounted for over one-half of the disputes beginning in 1937 and for nearly one-half of the workpeople directly involved in such disputes.

Nearly one-quarter of the disputes arose out of the employment of particular classes or persons. One-sixth of the workpeople directly involved ceased work in sympathy with workpeople at other establishments, i. e., not as a result of a direct grievance of their

own.3

RESULTS

The number and proportion of disputes beginning in 1937, and of workpeople directly involved therein, the results of which were (a) in favor of the workpeople, (b) in favor of the employers, and (c) of the nature of a compromise, were as under. Disputes classified as in favor of workpeople or in favor of employers, for the purpose of this and the following table, are those in which the workpeople or employers, respectively, were completely successful, or practically so, in attaining or resisting the objects to which the stoppage of work was due. Disputes in which the workpeople, or employers, were partly, but not wholly, successful are included under "compromise.

3 The 1-day stoppages of coal miners in Lanarkshire and of Clydeside engineers and shipbuilders mainly account for the number involved in sympathetic action.

Disputes which ended in favor of the employers accounted for nearly one-half of the number of disputes and for nearly two-thirds of the number of workpeople directly involved. These proportions were somewhat higher than in most previous years. As usual, a substantial proportion of the disputes (about 30 percent) ended in a compromise.

Combined statistics of the causes and results of disputes beginning in 1937 are given below:

The principal methods by which disputes beginning in 1937 were settled are shown in the table below:

The most frequent method of settlement of disputes in 1937, as in previous years, was direct negotiation between the parties or their representatives, nearly three-fifths of all the disputes being thus settled. Disputes in which work was resumed on the employers' terms, without negotiation, accounted for 30 percent of the number of disputes, but they involved almost as many workpeople as were involved in disputes that were settled by direct negotiation.