The Strike-Proneness of Large Plants in Britain

Manufacturing plants in the U.K. with more than a thousand employees suffer from a high frequency of strikes which increases very rapidly with size. It is shown that the available data are consistent with strikes' being generated by a random process in which individuals (or bargaining units) in plants of all sizes are subject to the same probability of striking; but it is the combination of these probabilities in larger plants that leads to their higher observed strike-frequencies.