Sunday, July 08, 2007

Labor Lost to Strikes


Interesting chart. Didn't know Iceland was trying to become the next Detroit.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Absolutely shocking chart! I'd really like to see some more depth to it though. I mean really, France has one of the lowest strike days? I thought they went on strike at the drop of a hat!
The only thing I can think of is that some of the countries shown have very powerful unions and highly regulated economies where higher wages / less productivity is negotiated or arbitrated with the favourable outcome falling on labours side much of the time whereas Iceland and Canada may have more business empowerment and the govts there don't interfere or force a contract on an employer.

Anonymous said...

I mean really, France has one of the lowest strike days? I thought they went on strike at the drop of a hat!"

They do, but since they hardly work at all to begin with, they don't have many days to lose. :)

But seriously, they don't go on strike because they don't have to. Labor conditions are largely dictated by the government, so the idea of going on strike to get what you want doesn't make much sense. They can just demand handouts instead.