What Has Happened to Strikes?

This article draws on and extends the conflict perspective developed in Richard Hyman's 1972 book Strikes to explore what has happened to strikes. First, I extend Hyman's analysis to account for the rise and decline of strike activity in the 1960s through to the 1980s and its unevenness across nations. Next, I draw on his analysis to develop and explore four hypotheses as to where the conflict has gone since, concluding that the evidence is limited but that all four likely have something to contribute. Finally, I propose an approach that goes beyond Strikes and discuss implications for the field of Industrial Relations and for future work in this area.