Ukrainian employees went on strike only thirteen times. Swedishworkershad 18 strikes andBritish employees went on 144 strikes.

Italian workers who are theleaders of the European labor movement went on 1,339 strikes in 2008. Even if you adjust number of strikes per capita, Ukraine still hadthe lowest number of strikes per capita in Europe.

There are couple thingswhich puzzle me about these data. First,workers in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, and Czech Republic did not go on strike at all because their strike was either cancelled or a conflict was resolved.

Second, I do not see France in this chart while the international mass mediaoften talks aboutFrench workers going on strike.

Anyways, can we really say that Ukrainian workers are more strike-averse than their European colleagues?

Is there another explanation behind these data? What if Ukrainian workers incur higher opportunity costs of going on strike than do their European counterparts?


Leo A. Krasnozhon is a visiting assistant professor of economics at the University of Texas at Arlington. He is also a fellow at the Property and Environment Research Center in Bozeman, Montana, and Institute for Humane Studies in Arlington, Virginia. His blog can be found
here.