THE FRENCH, BUREAUCRATS, AND SOUTHERNERS...:

The Workplace: Differences in nations are striking (Thomas Fuller, October 06, 2004, International Herald Tribune)

There is a long tradition in Europe of trying to divide the Continent into two types of people: northerners who favor butter versus southerners who prefer olive oil; friendly Mediterranean people versus the reserved Nordic types.

Add to this list the Europeans who strike a lot versus the Europeans who strike a lot less. Over the past decade, French workers have been four times as likely to strike as Dutch workers. Spanish workers, who lead Europe in strikes, have lost 248 days per 1,000 workers to strikes, while Austrians, with the fewest strikes on the Continent, lost just one day per 1,000 workers.

What makes one society more prone to strikes than another? Jelle Visser, an industrial relations specialist at the University of Amsterdam, says a country like France treats a strike as a form of expression, whereas in the Netherlands, strikes are seen as a last resort.

"In France, a strike is a common thing, irrespective of whether your negotiation fails or not," Visser said.

Strikes are more common in southern Europe, Visser said. But across the Continent, the number of strikes is declining in the private sector while it is increasing or is stable among government workers.

A conservative reading the newspaper must be forgiven the feeling that the whole world exists only to confirm his prejudices.

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 6, 2004 10:01 AM