Decline or transformation? Change in industrial conflict and its challenges

This article begins with a quantitative analysis of post-World War II strike activity in a group of European countries and the United States. The analysis highlights two important changes. First, over the past two decades, and particularly during the 1990s, there was a significant decrease in strike activity in the countries surveyed (with the notable exception of Denmark). Secondly, there has been a strong trend towards the so-called tertiarisation of conflict. This raises major problems for the measurement, analysis and regulation of strike activity, the strength of tertiary conflicts being based not on the number of days lost or the number of stri-kers involved, but on the extent of harm caused to the users of services. The impact of tertiary conflict varies from one country to another, in line with the different national regulatory mechanisms, national institutions and national styles of industrial relations. Sommaire Cet article commence par une analyse quantitative des mouvements de grève durant la pério-de après la Seconde Guerre mondiale dans un certain nombre de pays européens et aux Etats-Unis. L'analyse met en évidence deux changements importants. Tout d’abord, durant les deux dernières décennies, et en particulier pendant les années 90, il y a eu une diminution signi