HUB Global Labour Conflicts
In 2015, the International Institute of Social History Launched the HUB Global Labour Conflicts project. The goal of the HUB is to develop a new data collaboration which collects information about labour conflicts through time and space. By doing this, the HUB hopes to enable researchers to conduct comparative analyses and link information about labour conflicts. The project was set up by Sjaak van der Velden who collected data from various sources on strikes and work stoppages. During his time at the IISH Sjaak worked together with colleagues from the field to publish 56 different datasets on the IISH Dataverse. Today the project is overseen by Rosa Kösters.
While the importance of strikes and other labour disputes has already been well established within academia, the HUB seeks to bring forward a new perspective on this topic by building on the work done by the International Labour Organisation. At the HUB we recognise the importance of these strikes and work stoppages by recording the number, frequency, duration and scope of strikes and lockouts as well as the need to collect data on other forms of labour disputes. Our intention is to expand the scope of the HUB to include more data on all kinds of labour disputes.
We believe that by having reliable statistics on the social and economic impacts of labour disputes we can help analyse and compare different trends in labour relations. This can contribute to the interdisciplinary study of Global Labour History. At the HUB Global Labour Conflicts, we are interested in learning more about the history of labour disputes because we feel that they can tell us a lot about the history of workers' rights and workers’ responses to inequality.
At the moment, the HUB’s network connects more than 120 scholars working on labour conflicts. As our project continues to develop, we hope to expand our scope and engage further in all different types of research being done regarding labour disputes. If you are interested in getting involved in the HUB or wish to contribute your own research to our project, get in contact! We are always looking on how to expand our work.
Contact Email: LabourConflicts@iisg.nl
Image ‘Strikes in Brussels, 27 December, 1960’ at the top of this page: Harry Pot, National Archives of the Netherlands
