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PART V.

STATISTICS OF STRIKES AND LOCKOUTS.

CHAPTER I.

STATISTICS OF NUMBER OF DISPUTES AND PERSONS AFFECTED.

Several leading countries have, during the past 20 years, undertaken the compilation of official statistics regarding the number of strikes and lockouts, the number of persons affected, the causes, results, and similar matters. While such statistics are not free from errors, and while it is often difficult to draw satisfactory conclusions from them, they furnish, nevertheless, the most exact source of information which is available regarding this subject.

In the following analysis of these statistics we shall consider:

(1) The general statistics as to the number of disputes and of persons affected by them;

(2) The causes of disputes;

(3) Their duration;

(4) The amount of time lost by them, as well as the money losses; and

(5) Their results.

Under each head the statistics of the United States will be presented first and those of the European nations which publish official reports on this subject will then be compared with the figures for our own country. Briefer comparisons of the statistics of the different countries will be found in the introductory summary in this volume.

I. UNITED STATES.

The only authoritative statistics regarding strikes and lockouts in the United States are those prepared by the United States Department of Labor. The third annual report of the department presents the statistics for the years 1881 to 1887, while the tenth annual report covers those from January 1, 1887, to June 30, 1894. The sixteenth annual report, just issued, summarizes the earlier figures and includes also strikes and lockouts from 1894 to December 31, 1900. Through the courtesy of the Commissioner of Labor, advance sheets of this latter report have been furnished to the Industrial Commission, so that the present report appears contemporaneously with that of the Department of Labor. The reports concerning strikes prepared by the various State bureaus of labor are for the most part incomplete, even for the States and years which they cover. In no State have statistics covering a considerable number of years been prepared. Occasional reference will, however, be made to the figures from these sources, as well as to still less satisfactory statistics presented by certain labor organizations.

1. Distinction between strikes and lockouts.-The statistics prepared by the United States Department of Labor, as well as those contained in the official reports of France, Germany, and Austria, make a distinction between strikes and lockouts. This distinction is one exceedingly difficult to draw in practice, and it probably serves no altogether satisfactory purpose in the presentation of most of the statistics of industrial disturbances. The relatively slight difference between strikes and lockouts is recognized by the Department of Labor itself, which uses the following language in reference to it:

"A strike occurs when the employees of an establishment refuse to work unless the management complies with some demand. A lockout occurs when the management refuses to allow the employees to work unless they will work under

some condition dictated by the management. It appears therefore that these two classes of industrial disturbances are practically alike, the main distinction being that in a strike the employees take the initiative, while in a lockout the employer first makes some demand, and enforces it by refusing to allow his employees to work unless it is complied with. Some difficulty has been experienced in classifying certain of these disturbances, especially those which occurred in the earlier years included in this report, owing to the inadequate information obtainable as to their causes and because of the very slight difference between a strike and lockout as mentioned above."1

As a matter of fact, the distinction between strikes and lockouts is scarcely correctly indicated by the above quotation. It is not true that every strike involves a demand initiated on the part of the employees. The statistics of strikes show that a very common cause of refusal to work is unwillingness to accept new terms proposed by the employers. On the other hand, a lockout may perhaps be clearly defined in the language above quoted, although it may readily happen that a lockout may owe its first initiation to a demand on the part of the employees. The only really accurate and important distinction between industrial disputes would be drawn by grouping together on the one hand all cessations of employment which result from a movement begun in the first instance by the employees, and by including on the other hand all cessations of employment resulting from the initiation of the employer in making some change in the conditions of employment. This is not, however, the distinction made by the Department of Labor, nor by the other Governments which separate strikes from lockouts in their statistics. It would perhaps give a clearer idea of the extent, cause. and results of industrial disputes if the statistics for both strikes and lockouts were grouped together in every case. Thus, for example, in the classification of causes, instead of treating some strikes as being caused by resistance to reduction of wages and some lockouts as being due to desire to enforce reduction of wages all disturbances of this sort would be brought together under the general cause “proposed reduction of wages."

An unfortunate result which may arise from careless interpretation, on the part of the general public, of the distinction between strikes and lockouts is connected with the tendency to attribute a certain degree of blame to the party inangurating the dispute. It appears that there is a much larger proportion of strikes than of lockouts, and employees are blamed for it. When it is ascertained that a considerable number of disputes classed as strikes are due to resistance to proposed changes on the part of the employer, some of this onus is removed, but that fact is not always understood by the ordinary reader of newspaper accounts of individual strikes or to the reader of strike statistics. Doubtless the majority of industrial disturbances are due to demands of workingmen rather than to changes proposed by the employer, but the proportion due to action of the employees is not so great as the proportion of strikes compared with lockouts, as the words are ordinarily used, would indicate.

The numbers of lockouts as indicated by the statistics of all countries is so small that the conclusions as to industrial disputes which may be drawn from the consideration of the statistics of strikes alone would not in most cases be greatly modified by inclusion of the figures regarding lockouts. For this reason, in most of the discussion which follows, reference is made only to statistics regarding strikes. As to the more important matters, however, the statistics of lockouts have been considered likewise, so far as the official figures make this possible.

2. Basis of statistics.-The summary tables prepared by the Department of Labor in its reports on strikes and lockouts give both the number of establishments in which these disturbances have occurred and also the number of strikes or lockouts themselves, as the term is usually understood. Many disputes, of course, cover several different establishments, the average number of establishments to a strike during the years 1881 to 1900 being 5.2. Strikes are of all degrees of magnitude. In some only 1 establishment is affected; in others the strike may extend through a city, a State, or an entire section of the country, involving hundreds or even thousands of separate plants or enterprises. Statistics as to the causes and results of strikes which take the individual strike alone as a basis might evidently be very misleading in some regards. Thus a strike won by employees in 100 or 1,000 establishments would count no more in the table of statistics as to the results of strikes than would an unsuccessful strike in which a few employees in a single establishment were concerned. Statistics of results on the basis of establishments, such as are presented by the Department of Labor, are therefore somewhat more satisfactory than those based on individual strikes and lockouts, since the more important disputes will, on the average, each con

1 Rep. U. S. Dept. of Labor, 1894, p. 9.

cern more establishments than the less important, so that an approach toward a proper weighting will be secured. Nevertheless there are very great differences in the size of establishments and the number of persons employed. A successful strike in an establishment employing 1,000 men counts for no more in the summaries of results based on establishments than an unsuccessful strike in an establishment employing 10 persons. Comparison between different trades as regards prevalence of strikes and lockouts and their results are likely to be especially misleading if made on this basis alone, because of the wide differences in the average size of establishments for the different trades.

The most satisfactory basis of comparison as to strikes is, for most points, the number of employees involved. Thus it is of more importance to know that 40 per cent or 50 per cent of the employees thrown out by strikes and lockouts have won their cause or have lost it than to know that in 40 or 50 per cent of the establishments concerned the workingmen have been successful or unsuccessful. The figures of the Department of Labor show distinctly that the proportions of success and failure differ greatly according as the one or the other basis is taken. The tables prepared by the Department give the number of persons thrown out of employment by strikes and lockouts for all industries combined from year to year, and the number of employees who are successful or unsuccessful is also given for the country as a whole. But the number of workingmen who have been successful or unsuccessful is not given for separate industries, and the number of persons thrown out of employment by strikes or lockouts for specific causes is also not indicated.

The reports of the Department of Labor do not cover strikes lasting only a single day or less, which are quite numerous and important but which can not readily be traced.

3. Statistics of strikes and lockouts for all trades.-The following table shows for each year from 1881 to 1900 the number of strikes and lockouts in the United States, the number of establishments affected, and the number of employees thrown out of work:

Strikes and lockouts by years, January 1, 1881, to December 31, 1900.

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1 Not including the number in 33 establishments for which these data were not obtainable.

The total number of strikes for the 20 years covered by these tables is seen to be 22,793: The number of establishments affected by these strikes was 117,509, making an average of 5.2 establishments affected by each strike. The number of establishments affected by lockouts is less than one-tenth as great as the number affected by strikes 9,933. The number of lockouts was 1,005, and the average number of establishments per lockout 9.9, a much larger proportion than in the case of strikes.

The number of employees thrown out of employment by strikes during the years 1881 to 1900 was 6,105,694, while the number thrown out by lockouts was again less

than one-tenth as great-504,307. The average number of employees affected by each strike was 268, and by each lockout 500.

It is particularly to be noticed that the figures above given regarding the number of persons thrown out of employment by strikes are not the same as the figures regarding the number of persons who actually originated strikes. In many cases the cessation of work by one body of employees forces out of employment others in the same establishment, or even in other establishments, who perhaps have no grievance or desire to strike. While the total number of persons forced out of employment by strikes from 1881 to 1900 was 6,105,694, the number of strikers during the same period was only 4,694,849.

It should also be remembered that the same persons may strike two or more times in a single year, in which case they would be duplicated in the statistics of the number of strikers. The same is true of the figures for persons thrown out of employment.

It will be observed that the number of strikes and of persons thrown out by strikes varies greatly from year to year. Aside from mere elements of chance or from special causes which could not be distinctly traced without the most elaborate investigations, there are doubtless certain general influences affecting the frequency of strikes throughout the country. It is noteworthy, for instance, that since 1886 the average annual number of strikes, as well as the number of establishments affected and the number of persons thrown out of employment, has been much greater than during the years 1881 to 1885-approximately, at least twice as great. While this difference may perhaps be partly due to incompleteness of the figures for the earlier years, it is also doubtless to some extent explicable by the growth of the organized labor movement and by the increasing demand of workingmen for a larger share of the product of industry and for better conditions generally. The years 1886 and 1887 mark the culmination of the strength of the Knights of Labor, and the very large number of strikes and of strikers in those years is probably due in part to the activity of that organization.

The large number of strikes and strikers in 1894 was probably largely due to the great railway disputes in that year, which affected a very considerable proportion of the railway employees of the country, and which had some influence in leading workingmen in other lines of industry to strike also. The increase in the number of strikes during 1899 and 1900 has been attributed by many labor leaders to the prosperity of those years, after the long depression, workingmen putting forth vigorous efforts to secure a share in the generally advancing prosperity. It seems, however, impossible, from a close scrutiny of the statistics of strikes and lockouts throughout the entire 20 years covered by these tables, to show any general parallelism between the number of labor disputes and the state of prosperity or depression of general business. Workingmen are sometimes moved to strike during hard times in resistance to reductions of wages, although often the more conservative leaders advise them against such a step on the ground that it would prove futile. On the other hand, in times of prosperity, workingmen often deem it necessary to strike in order to secure what seems to them a proper share of the increased prosperity of industry.

It should be noted, however, as regards strikes during hard times, that the fact that an increase in the number of persons out of employment on strike does not necessarily mean a corresponding increase in the total amount of unemployment above what would have existed in the absence of an added prevalence of strikes. When hard times come the first thought of employers is apt to be reduction of wages with a view to meeting the fall in prices of products. To this reduction workingmen may object and strikes result. In many cases, however, in the absence of a strike employers find that even with reduced wages their establishments can not be run at a profit. The closing of factories follows, and many men are thus thrown out of employment. It is doubtless often true that those who go out on strike under such circumstances merely anticipate what would have been an inevitable cessation of employment.

While the number of strikers has tended to increase somewhat during the period covered by the above table, each 5-year period showing a somewhat larger number than the one before, the increase, except as compared with the years 1881-1885, is scarcely if at all greater than that in population, and is less than the increase in the number of persons employed in those industries in which strikes are likely to occur.

The average number of establishments affected by each strike has varied greatly from year to year. The average number of employees thrown out by each strike has varied much less. This fact would seem to show that strikes have in some years been especially numerous in trades where each establishment employs a large number of men; while in other years the trades most engaged in strikes have apparently been those in which the establishments are smaller. The total

number of strikes, as we shall see, is greatly influenced by the number in the building trades. Nearly one-fifth of all strikes occur in these trades. In them the establishments are usually small. The unions are strong and each strike is likely to reach numerous establishments. The number of establishments affected by strikes in these trades is about 35 per cent of the total number of establishments in all trades affected by strikes. An increase in the tendency to strike in these trades in any year will therefore increase materially the total number of establishments in which strikes occur without correspondingly increasing the total number of persons out of employment by reason of strikes.

The indications as to the prevalence of labor difficulties from year to year are not materially affected by the inclusion of the statistics of lockouts, except in the case of the years 1886, 1887, 1892, and 1900, when the number of establishments affected by lockouts and the number of persons thrown out of employment by them was, as compared with the number of strikes, much higher than usual, thus considerably increasing the figures for the total number of labor disputes and of persons affected by them. For the year 1886 it appears that no less than 610,024 persons were thrown out of employment by strikes and lockouts, a number exceeded only in 1894, and considerably greater than in 1900, when both classes of disputes threw 567,719 persons out of employment. There seems to be no special connection between the number of strikes and the number of lockouts. This of course follows from the fact that there is really so little difference between the strike and the lockout that a difficulty which under one set of circumstances might lead to the application of the term lockout, would under other circumstances be classed as a strike.

In order to arrive at a more adequate idea as to the significance of the figures concerning the number of persons thrown out of employment by strikes and lockouts, it is necessary to compare these figures with the total number of persons employed. The average number thrown out of employment at some time during each year from 1881 to 1900 was 305,285. The number of persons thrown out of employment by lockouts in the same period averaged each year 25,215. The total number thrown out each year by both classes of disputes has averaged 330,500.

If we take the statistics of occupation according to the census of 1890,' we must exclude farmers and agricultural laborers, domestic servants, those engaged in professional service, merchants, and dealers, and employers generally, since among these classes strikes can scarcely be expected to occur. With these deductions, we find the number of persons, over 16 years of age, employed in 1890 in the various industries subject to strike to be 9,843,466. This number is doubtless considerably greater than the average number of persons actually employed in the establishments covered by the investigation as to strikes. Many persons who rank as belonging to certain occupations are either permanently out of employment or out of employment part of the time. Moreover some of those included are independent workmen or even employers in a small way. Nevertheless this figure may be fairly compared with the average number of persons thrown out by strikes.

By this comparison we find that during the years 1881 to 1900 there were on the average 31.02 persons thrown out of employment by strikes, at some time during each year, for every 1,000 persons employed in occupations subject to strike. In other words, 1 person out of every 32.2 was thrown out of employment by strikes each year.

The number of persons thrown out of employment by lockouts each year was 2.57 for every 1,000 persons employed. The number of persons thrown out of employment yearly by lockouts and strikes combined was 33.59 per 1,000, or about 1 out of every 29 persons employed. In another connection we shall consider the average number of days lost by each of these strikes, with a view to ascertaining the proportion of the working time of American employees which is lost through labor disputes. (See p. 664.)

The number of strikes in different States of the Union is shown by one of the tables of the report of the Department of Labor. It is conspicuous that the number of strikes and of persons thrown out of employment bears little proportion to the total population. This, of course is to be expected, since strikes very seldom occur in agricultural industries and are therefore likely not to be numerous in States where the great body of the population is engaged in such industries. Strikes, also, are relatively few in the Southern States, not only because of the prevailingly agricultural character of their industries, but also because the labor movement has become less advanced in these States than in the North. Thus in South Carolina only one-twentieth of 1 per cent of all the strikers of the country

1 Figures for occupations by the census of 1900 are not yet available, and in any case 1890 is near the middle of the period covered by the strike statistics.

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