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    5. Five facts about... strikes

Five facts about... strikes

   12 August 2016

   As rail staff at Eurostar suspend two strikes this month for talks in a
   dispute over their work-life balance, and discussions between unions
   and management at Southern continue, we look at recent and historic
   statistics on industrial action in the UK.

1. The number of working days lost due to strikes in 2015 was 170,000
compared with 788,000 in 2014

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   Download the data

3. From 2006 to 2015, public sector strikes accounted for 85% of all strikes
on average

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   Download the data

4. 81,000 people were involved in strikes in 2015, the fewest people since
records began in 1893

   Four years earlier more than 1.5 million people went on strike – the
   highest number since the mid-1980s.

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5. The Public Administration sector, Education sector and the Transport,
Storage, Information and Communication sector have seen the most working days
lost to strikes per 1,000 employees since 2006

   This is mainly because disputes in this group tend to be large.
   Education has also seen a large strike rate. This industry group has a
   large number of labour disputes, but the disputes are usually small. A
   full list of sectors and the numbers of working days lost to strikes in
   2015 can be seen here.

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     * Labour Disputes in the UK, 2015
     * The history of strikes in the UK

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