When a million is a small number

Prison officers, driving instructors, passport staff and postal workers have all been involved in different forms of industrial action in the last twelve months. And last year the number of working days lost through industrial stoppages exceeded one million for only the second time in a decade.

One million days lost – that sounds like a big number - but it is not!

It is a good example of a large number that has to be put into context. It does not herald the return to an age of trade union militancy or endemic strife in workplaces across the length and breadth of the country.

In the 1970s an average of 13 million days were lost to strikes including the infamous Winter of Discontent in 1978-709 which is said to have played a large part in the downfall of Jim Callaghan’s Labour government in May 1979. In the 1980s just under 8 million days were lost each year.

That is not to say that strike action is not costly both to the businesses concerned and to consumers – the postal strike last autumn was a good example of the damage that can be caused by a series of short stoppages.

But the industrial relations climate in the UK is completely different to that which existed twenty to thirty years ago. One million looks a large number but it is not …. Far more days are lost to illness than are lost to disputes between unions and their employers.