Strikes in the public sector in Denmark – assessing the economic gains and losses of collective action

Steen Scheuer, Flemming Ibsen and Laust Høgedahl
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Steen Scheuer: Department of Marketing and Management, University of Southern Denmark, Slagelse, Denmark
Flemming Ibsen: Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark
Laust Høgedahl: Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 2016, vol. 22, issue 3, 367-382

Abstract: This article looks at strikes by employees in the public sector, discusses the theoretical background to these conflicts and shows – based on a case study of three strikes in the Danish public sector – how different union strategies lead to very different outcomes in terms of economic gains and losses, ranging from a slightly positive result to a negative result from which it will take eight to ten years to recover. This is of great importance because the challenge facing public sector unions is different from that of their counterparts: private sector unions struggle with the owners of capital, while public sector unions trying to move up the wage hierarchy cannot expect much help from fellow public sector unions, often quite the reverse.

Keywords: Strikes; public sector; industrial conflict; trade unions; collective bargaining; wage relativities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:treure:v:22:y:2016:i:3:p:367-382

DOI: 10.1177/1024258916655709

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