Most of the strikes in the last group were small, however, only 7 of them involving as many of 500 workers. Two of these strikes were ended during August-the strike at the Wisconsin Steel Coal Mines of the International Harvester Co., Benham, Ky., which began about the first of May, and a strike at the Signal Knitting Mills in Chattanooga, Tenn., which began late in May. TABLE 7.-Strikes Beginning in the First 8 Months of 1941, by Affiliation of Labor Organizations Involved TABLE 8.—Strikes Ending in the 8-Month Period, January to August 1941, by Industry As shown in table 9, about 52 percent of the strikes, including 75 percent of the total workers involved, were settled with the assistance of Government officials or boards during the 8-month period, January to August. In 47 of these 1,437 strikes, involving more than 450,000 workers, the National Defense Mediation Board assisted in the settlement. Slightly more than one-third of the strikes, including about 21 percent of the total workers, were settled by negotiations directly between the employers and union representatives. In about 11 percent of the strikes including only 3 percent of the workers, no formal settlement was reached. In these cases, the workers returned without settlement of the disputed issues, or they lost their jobs when the employers went out of business, moved to other localities, or replaced the striking workers with new employees. TABLE 9.-Methods of Negotiating Settlements of Strikes Ending in the 8-Month Period, January to August 1941 In about 44 percent of the strikes ending in the first 8 months of the year, the workers won substantially all their demands and in 35 percent they obtained compromise settlements (table 10). Forty-six percent of the workers were involved in the successful strikes and about 41 percent in those which were compromised. Fourteen percent of the strikes, including 6 percent of the workers, resulted in little or no gains to the workers. TABLE 10.-Results of Strikes Ending in the 8-Month Period, January to August 1941 Half of the strikes ending in the 8-month period, January to August, were over union-organization matters (table 11). In about 49 percent of these strikes the workers were successful and in 33 percent they obtained compromise settlements. In the strikes over wages and hours, the workers substantially won their demands in 46 percent and compromised about 44 percent. Fifty-four percent of the workers involved in strikes ending during this period were included in the strikes over wage-and-hour issues. About 53 percent of the workers in this group were involved in the successful strikes and about 41 percent in those which were compromised. The union-organization strikes ending in the first 8 months of the year included about one-third of the total workers. Of this group of workers, about 45 percent substantially won their demands and 47 percent obtained compromise settlements. TABLE 11.-Results of Strikes Ending in the 8-Month Period, January to August 1941, in Relation to Major Issues Involved ACTIVITIES OF THE UNITED STATES CONCILIATION SERVICE, OCTOBER 1941 THE United States Conciliation Service, during October, disposed of 719 situations, involving 438,144 workers. The services of this agency were requested by the employers, employees, and other interested parties (table 1). Of these situations 194 were strikes and lock-outs involving 94,831 workers; 281 were threatened strikes and controversies involving 191,543 workers. Twenty disputes were certified during the month to the National Defense Mediation Board, and jurisdiction was assumed by other agencies in 34 others. The remaining 190 situations included investigations, arbitrations, requests for information, consultations, etc. The facilities of the Service were used in 28 major industrial fields, such as building trades, and the manufacture of foods, iron and steel, textiles, etc. (table 2), and were utilized by employees and employers in 42 States, the District of Columbia, and Alaska (table 3). TABLE 1.—Situations Disposed of by United States Conciliation Service, October 1941, by Type of Situation TABLE 2.-Situations Disposed of by United States Conciliation Service, October 1941, |