La grève au Canada, 1927-1952 Analyse statistique et interprétation

Sommaire

En face du phénomène social qu'est la grève, rares sont ceux qui ne se laissent pas entraîner à porter des jugements sommaires. L'auteur fait ici une analyse statistique poussée du mouvement des grèves au Canada durant les derniers vingt-cinq ans. Dans une seconde partie il essaie de voir jusqu'à quel point on est justifié d'interpréter les tendances et les corrélations que l'on peut découvrir. C'est la première étude du genre au pays.

Summary

Recent strikes — to say nothing of those which have almost taken place —have turned the spotlight on the over-all problem of labour disputes in our country.The strike, that collective phenomenon which is so characteristic of our epoch,certainly does not lack publicity. It does not leave anybody indifferent.

Considering the extent of the problem and the intensity of the emotion it arouses, there is only one thing left to do: study the reality, figures in hand. The results of this statistical study of the strike phenomenon in Canada from 1927 to 1952, may be summed up as follows:

1. The number of strikes has increased, very irregularly, however;

2. The number of workers involved in the strikes has increased considerably,especially since 1939, but with ups and downs;

3. The number of individual days of work lost in strikes has multiplied itself since 1943;

4. The average number, by strike, of individual days of work lost in strikes hasincreased considerably since 1945;

5. The number of non-agricultural workers has almost doubled since 1927; adecided increase may be noted especially since 1941, with ihe second WorldWar and the "cold war" which followed it;'

6. Union membership is four times larger in 1952 than in 1927; it is during thelast war that union expansion was particularly active; the union movementhas developed in a quite uneven way over the period of years;

7. The proportion of non-agricultural workers who belong to unions has doubled in twenty-six years; except for a few years of intensive organization, the degree of union membership varies more or less in relation to the number of non-agricultural workers;

8. The proportion of non-agricultural workers involved in strikes has tripled from1927 to 1952, increasing almost constantly;

9. The degree of organization and the proportion of the workers involved instrikes do not follow a parallel evolution; it may be noted that, proportionately,the increase in the number of workers involved in strikes has been greaterthan that of union membership, which would seem to indicate that otherelements are concerned;

10. The non-agricultural worker of 1952 loses, on the average, much more time instrikes than his predecessor of 1927;

11. It is impossible to note any significant tendency in the evolution of the averageloss of time by union workers;

12. If an exception is made for the immediate post-war years (1945-49) and the year 1952, it may be noted that there is a decrease in the average number of individual days of work lost by workers involved in strikes.

It is not possible, with just figures, to formulate — even in outline only — a"theory" of strikes. On the other hand, industrial experience in Canada is so new,relatively speaking, that even the apposition of considerations of a qualifyingcharacter can only furnish us, in 1953, with scattered elements, often confused,inarticulate, difficult to place in an organic body, in a coherent theory. Regardlessof these weaknesses, research must be continued and in all fields.

We will feel satisfied if this study has succeeded in demonstrating this: Thatthe problem of strikes is not a simple problem, and that judgments in this fieldmust be carefully made.