On 2006/03/30, at 13:20, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> Take a look at "Strikes and Lockouts, Workers Involved and Workdays
> Not Worked, by Selected Countries," comparing Canada, the United
> States, Japan, and the United Kingdom, from 1993 to 2001:
> <http://www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/labor30a.htm>.
> The number of strikes and lockouts is far fewer in the US than in
> Japan, not to mention the UK and Canada.
Yes, but it strikes me that with about half the population of the US, the numbers of workers involved is still relatively much lower in Japan than in the US, as is the number of workdays not worked.
So, whatever the actual number of strikes or lockouts is (and I'd say mostly strikes in Japan), they seem to be much more efficient (read involve more workers for more workdays off) in the US than in Japan.
Practically speaking (and that relates only to _my_ own experience in Japan so I may be wrong) strikes conventionally take place _before_ the beginning of work (for ex from 7 to 8 in a public office, then works starts as usual at 8) or within a traditionally accepted time frame (the shunto->spring offensive) without actually involving much disturbance to the whole labor structure. Of course, there must be a number of other forms of labor protests.
The data set has a not for Japan: "3. Excluding work stoppages lasting less than half a day.", which would refer to the "before work starts" strikes I suppose, and that shows how Japan has a global strike inefficiency problem I'd say.
Jean-Christophe