LABOR DISPUTES IN WESTERN-EUROPE - TYPOLOGY AND TENDENCIES

Western Europe has experienced a marked fall in labour disputes over t he last 20 years. But is this true everywhere? Has lasting industrial peace set in? In order to measure countries' propensity to strike, the author constructs indicators of the strike rate, rate of days lost, s trikers' mobilization and determination, and indices - relative, struc tural, general. Applying a typology of labour disputes, he finds that they have indeed declined in number, but not in intensity. One can ant icipate that disputes will occur more rarely, but be tougher and more difficult for trade unions and political authorities to manage.