In October, 417,000 working days were “lost” in the UK thanks to strike action, the highest such loss for around 11 years. Dramatic? Not really. It’s a mere blip relative to periods of industrial unrest in the 20th century. In September 1978, the worst point in the original “winter of discontent”, almost 12 million working days were lost. During the 1926 General Strike, 162 million working days were lost.