Industrial disputes - the UK data

The Timetric site is a terrific resource for business and economics teachers who want to call up some latest data onto the screen or whiteboard to generate some student discussion. I wanted to take a look at the extent of lost days arising from industrial dispute and found this chart which enables you to illustrate the long-term trend in industrial disputes…

Here is the data in live format:

Data from Timetric.

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Labour Market: Labour disputes, UK from Timetric

This is a downloadable image of the chart:

http://www.tutor2u.net/blog/images/uploads/timetric-topic-labour-market-labour-dii-510x350-line.jpg

The students will surely point to the significant peaks in working days lost to industrial disputes during the mid 1980s (predominantly the miners strike) and to a substantially quieter period for industrial relations over the last couple of decades. Will this last? Are we about to enter a more sustained period of industrial unrest as economic conditions continue to worsen?