Strike Incidence Research Articles

CUPE on Strike, 1963-2004

CUPE On Strike offers a profile of the 1502 CUPE strikes since the union's inception in 1963 until 2004. In addition to breakdowns by province and industry, it considers strike incidence over time, duration, size of strikes, contract status, results, and the pattern of lockouts and rotating strikes. Like the overall Canadian strike profile, a majority of strikes are in small workplaces and are settled relatively quickly. Not surprisingly, CUPE strikes are clustered in Public Administration, and Health Care and Social Assistance. This demographic might help to explain the fact that CUPE has been involved in fewer wildcats, lockouts and strikes for first contracts than other unions. Although the overall trend for Canada since the 1990s has been a decrease in strikes, a modest shift in the last five years is evident in the data. For CUPE, this means more workers on strike, longer strikes, and more lockouts, all of which suggest an escalation in employer aggression. The Canadian data which highlight increasing public sector militancy and the feminization of that militancy suggest that CUPE will be a key player in the map of labour militancy in the future. This profile of the strike activities of CUPE, the largest union in Canada, makes visible the experience of strikes from the point of view of workers and their unions. Not only does it contribute to a labour militancy perspective on the quantitative data on work stoppages from Human Resources and Social Development Canada (HRSDC), it also demonstrates the potential of the data to enrich our understanding of worker militancies.

The Impact of Free Agency and the Salary Cap on Competitive Balance in the National Football League

This article examines the competitive balance of the National Football League (NFL) using Gini coefficients and the deviations of the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index. The authors present upper bounds for both measures that are constructed using actual playing schedules. They model competitive balance as a function of player talent, the incidence of strikes, the expansion of the NFL, change in the number of playoff teams, schedule length, team relocation, the number of new stadiums, and the introduction of free agency and the salary cap in the NFL using data from the 1970 to 2002 seasons. The authors find that free agency and salary cap restrictions tend to promote competitive balance, whereas a concentration of player talent reduces competitiveness among teams. Player strikes and the construction of new stadiums also affect competitive balance.

The Mystery of Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Dysplasia/Cardiomyopathy

Only 24 years have elapsed from the time that the clinical profile of arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy (ARVD/C) was first described.1 Since then, this entity has been found to have a prevalence of about 1 in 5000 persons2 and is well recognized in the United States, Europe, and Asia. The usual clinical presentation of ARVD/C is that of palpitations, nonsustained ventricular tachycardia, and sustained ventricular arrhythmias. Uncommonly, sudden cardiac death may be the first manifestation of the disease. Most patients with this condition experience the onset of these symptoms between the ages of 20 and 40 years, and the disease shows a predisposition to occur in men. A familial incidence was noted in the early description of the disease. Article p 1799 Certain observations about the disease were intriguing but puzzling. Why did there appear to be a striking incidence of athletic individuals affected by this disease?3 Why is there a predilection for the disease to primarily affect certain locations of the right ventricle: the right ventricular outflow tract, the apex, and the subtricuspid area of the right ventricle, the so-called “triangle of dysplasia”?1 Why is there a latent period for the development of the clinical manifestations of ARVD/C, because it is seldom evident in childhood but is expressed in late puberty, adolescence, or early adulthood? Over the past 10 years, genetic studies …

Serogroup 19 Pneumococci Containing Both mef and erm Macrolide Resistance Determinants in an American City

Asia has experienced a striking incidence of infection by highly resistant pneumococi containing both principal macrolide resistance determinants, namely, the mef efflux pump and the erm ribosomal methylase. mef/erm-containing pneumococci have not been identified in significant numbers in North America. Pneumococci were isolated as part of a larger study in Cleveland, OH examining colonization patterns among children randomized to 1 of 4 outpatient antibiotics for acute otitis media. Azithromycin-resistant organisms were tested for the presence of mef and erm sequences by polymerase chain reaction. The clonal relationship of pneumococci containing both genes was determined by pulsed field gel electrophoresis and multilocus sequence testing. Selected characteristics of children harboring mef/erm-containing organisms were compared with other participants of the larger study. Of 221 children colonized by pneumococci, 17 (7.7%) were colonized with an organism containing both determinants. All mef/erm-positive organisms demonstrated azithromycin minimum inhibitory concentrations > or =256 microg/mL and were coresistant to all other agents tested. The mef/erm-containing organisms were serotype 19A and 19F, all but 1 of which manifested similar pulsed field gel electrophoresis patterns. Multilocus sequence testing analysis indicated a relationship to the Taiwan-14 macrolide-resistant strain that has spread throughout Eastern Asia. More than one-third of children colonized by a mef/erm-containing organism had received > or =1 dose of conjugate pneumococcal vaccine, a significantly higher proportion than children carrying less resistant organisms (P< 0.01). No other characteristics distinguished children harboring a mef/erm-containing pneumococcus from other children enrolled in the larger study. Clonally related mef/erm-containing serogroup 19 pneumococci were prominent among otherwise healthy children in a North American metropolitan area. Our findings suggest that spread of these organisms may be poorly contained by immunization.

Control of sheep blowfly strike using fly-traps

The use of fly-traps for the control of sheep blowfly strike was examined on 12 commercial sheep farms in south west England in 2003. Two flocks acted as controls, with no prophylactic blowfly strike control. Four flocks of lambs and three flocks of ewes were protected only by blowfly traps, seven of the flocks of ewes and six flocks of lambs were protected by blowfly traps but also had proprietary insecticides applied to them at some stage. There was no difference in the abundance of L. sericata at the various sites. The highest incidence of strike was seen in the two control flocks where 10.9 and 5.8% of the ewes and 10.1 and 9.2% of the lambs were struck. Strike incidence in the flocks that used trapping only and flocks that used trapping plus a chemical preventive was on average five times lower than in the control flocks, but the percentages struck on the sites in the trapping only and trapping plus insecticide groups were not significantly different from each other. The results of this study show that traps can make an effective contribution to blowfly strike control on individual farms.

Estimation of the lightning strike incidence of free-standing masts

An efficient method is proposed in this paper for estimating the lightning strike incidence of free-standing masts. In the proposed method, the attractive volume is defined to describe the lightning attraction characteristic of the mast. Its border is determined from the interception condition of the upward leader to the downward leader. Introducing the modified formula allows the mast height dependency to be included in the evaluation of the striking distance. An integral is performed on the attractive surface to obtain the equivalent exposure area of the mast, with the stochastic distribution of approach angle of the downward leader taken into account. Then, the annual strike incidence is calculated for various mast heights. To confirm the validity of the proposed method, a comparison is made between calculated results and empirical formulas.

Strike Incidence and Strike Duration: Some New Evidence from Ontario

The authors use a unique longitudinal data set from Ontario, covering the years 1984–92, to estimate the determinants of strike incidence and duration. Unlike most empirical analyses of strikes, the data set for this study contains both small and large bargaining units. The authors find strong evidence that the likelihood of a future strike was lower among bargaining units that had struck before than among those that had not (the “teetotaler” effect); the longer a strike lasted, the greater was the probability of settling (positive duration dependence); and smaller bargaining units were less likely to strike than were larger bargaining units, but had longer strikes when they did strike.

Conciliation : The End of Compulsory Boards

The Woods' Report has recommended the abolition of compulsory conciliation boards. The recent de-emphasis on compulsory conciliation boards in the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Ontario by legislative changes and administrative practices has led to certain conclusions. Experience has shown that the benefits to collective bar-gaining hâve been désirable, and that the incidence and/or magnitude of strikes hâve not increased.

The Determinants of Strike Activity: An Interindustry Analysis

The paper presents an adaptation of a Chamberlain-Kuhn costs of agreement-costs of disagreement model explaining strike incidence and duration as functions of economic factors. The emphasis is on testing this model, rather than «explaining» strike activity. The results indicate the economic model fails to explain strike incidence, but does better at explaining strike duration, given incidence.

The Demand for NFL Attendance: A Rational Addiction Model

This paper examines the demand for attendance at National Football League (NFL) games using a rational addiction model to test the hypothesis that professional football displays the properties of a habit-forming good. Rational addiction theory suggests that past and future consumption play a part in determining the current period's consumption for habit-forming goods. A pooled data set is collected using statistics from each NFL team from the 1983 to the 2002 seasons. Current attendance is modeled as a function of team specific variables including past and future attendance, ticket price, and team performance as well as league variables such as the incidence of strikes. The model is estimated using Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS). It is found that past and future attendance, winning percentage, the age of the stadium in which a team plays, and the occurrence of strikes are significant factors in the determination of attendance at NFL games. The fact that coefficients for past and future attendance are positive and significant in this analysis lends support to the notion that NFL fans display characteristics of rational addiction in their consumption behavior.

Illustrating Culture: Consensus and Conflict in the Nineteenth-Century American Picture Press

Joshua Brown. Beyond the Lines: Pictorial Reporting, Everyday Life, and the Crisis of Gilded Age America. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 2002. 384 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, and index. $49.95. On April 27, 1861, while Fort Sumter lay under siege, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper ran a call for artists among the soldiery on both sides of the conflict: Important Notice! To Officers and others Attached to the Armies of the Federal and the Confederate States I shall be happy to receive from Officers and others attached to either Army, sketches of important events and striking incidents which may occur during the impending struggle which seems to threaten the country. For such sketches, forwarded promptly, I will pay liberally . . . The most convincing proof of the reliability and accuracy of our illustrations is, that ours is the only Illustrated Paper which is allowed to circulate freely in the South, and an additional proof is, that it stands a critical examination in those places where the scenes we illustrate occurred . (p. 47) The notice contains in condensed form much of the flavor of Leslie's and, beyond it, the illustrated popular journalism of nineteenth-century America. The call for "sketches"—not written, but drawn—reflected a shift in emphasis within the magazine press, from a cultivated, even elevated form of writing toward a visual journalism, democratically based and directed toward a newly empowered and rapidly expanding democratic polity. Leslie's wanted artifacts of direct experience, marked with the imprimatur of authenticity; it sought to present itself as less a maker of taste and ideology than a conduit linking everyday citizens experiencing the momentous events of democracy and modernization. This Leslie's notice was the clarion call of a new force in American cultural politics: a popular press situated between the scurrilous rags of vested political interest and inflammatory rhetoric and the sober high-style Boston and New York literary magazines. Even as the Union was [End Page 204] sundering, Leslie's was announcing a new American mass culture, based in the promise of authenticity, applying the democracy of sight and the visual to overcome divisions of literacy and language and, beyond that, class, region, and political divisions. This is the first argument Joshua Brown presents in his engrossing study of the illustrated press in nineteenth-century America: that we can trace in this often-cited but rarely studied genre the rise of a uniquely American popular culture. But there is much more to this wonderful study: Brown's narrative is a story, with twists and turns of plot, Dickensian characters and settings, and an equivalently complex set of interwoven themes. Beginning with Leslie's, Brown expands his focus to include the magazine press more generally; watching this segment of popular culture, Brown reveals its hubris—its promise to unite a disparate nation, a promise impossible to keep and often disastrous in outcome. As Brown argues, forcibly and with expertise, "Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper prospered because of its ability to both address and encompass difference. . . . [H]owever . . . this inclusiveness could never successfully bridge oppositions" (p. 46). To survive the very turbulence it reported and exploited, Leslie's turned to the visual, to "pictorial coverage" as a means to disguise, to emphasize, to undercut, to distill, and to disguise its contradictory messages. Let us return for a moment to that call for artists—a densely packed artifact, rich in significance for those seeking to understand Leslie's in particular and nineteenth-century American culture in general. Brown examines the packed canvas of American life during the period, and he has found it necessary to read not just other journals, but the documents and histories of a far wider array of cultural trends and events—not least because Leslie's and other such periodicals promised readers they'd find everything they needed to know, to think, and to believe in their...

Bird strike incidents involving Kenya Airways flights at three Kenyan airports, 1991–2001

AbstractBird strike data involving Kenya Airways aircraft at three Kenya's international airports located at Mombasa (Moi International Airport), Nairobi (Jomo Kenyatta International Airport) and Kisumu (Kisumu International Airport) have been regularly gathered by Kenya Airways during the period 1991–2001. The Department of Ornithology, National Museums of Kenya, has been a key collaborator in this effort by identifying the bird species, often just from remains of the carcass or a few feathers. A total of 224 bird strike incidents were reported at the three airports during the study period. Nairobi had the highest number of strikes (n = 90), followed by Kisumu (n = 88) and Mombasa (n = 46). Seven bird families, namely Ciconiidae, Accipitridae, Threskiornithidae, Numididae, Ardeidae, Corvidae and Gruidae accounted for most incidents in different phases of aeroplane flights, time of day and seasons. The general trend of bird strike incidents at the three airports showed a consistent increase during the study period, with Nairobi experiencing a significant rise (regression analysis, P = 0.03) over the 10‐year period. This preliminary analysis provides baseline information necessary for bird hazard management at the three airports.

Dynamic bargaining with action-dependent valuations

An infinite-horizon, dynamic bargaining model is presented in which actions affect the expected future value of the buyer–seller match. Because actions directly affect the future surplus to be bargained over, the model is unlike other models that tie the dynamic process to nature alone. Focusing on a subset of weak Markov equilibria, several results come about that are not found in static bargaining models using similar bargaining protocols. In particular, optimal price demands can be lower (higher) than the buyer's lowest (highest) possible valuation, and several empirical features concerning wage settlements and strike incidence from labor union contract negotiations can be explained.

Development and validation of a simulation model for blowfly strike of sheep.

A comprehensive simulation model for sheep blowfly strike due to Lucilia sericata (Meigen) (Diptera: Calliphoridae), which builds on previously published versions but also incorporates important new empirical data, is used to explain patterns of lamb and ewe strike recorded on 370 farms in south-west, south-east and central England and Wales. The model is able to explain a significant percentage of the variance in lamb strike incidence in all four regions, and ewe strike in three of the four regions. The model is able to predict the start of seasonal blowfly strike within one week in three of the four regions for both ewes and lambs, and within 3 weeks in the fourth region. It is concluded that the accuracy of the model will allow it to be used to assess the likely efficacy of new control techniques and the effects of changes in existing husbandry practices on strike incidence. The model could also be used to give sheep farmers advance warning of approaching strike problems. However, the ability to forecast future strike patterns is dependent on the accuracy of the weather projections; the more long-term the forecast, the more approximate the prediction is likely to be. When applied on a regional basis, model forecasts indicate expected average patterns of strike incidence and may not therefore be appropriate for individual farmers whose husbandry practices differ substantially from the average.

Hope against Hope: Strike Activity in Canada, 1920–1939

The received view is that, across countries and time, strike dimensions trace an empirical regularity. The incidence and duration of contract strikes move in opposite directions over the business cycle: incidence is procyclical and duration countercyclical. The Canadian experience in the interwar years was different. Strike incidence was independent of the business cycle and strike durations fell steadily over the period. A distinct pattern emerged. The 1920s saw a decline in strike activity and steady losses for workers; in the 1930s strike activity gained momentum and there were more worker wins. Our interpretation of this extraordinary episode is based on a new data set collected for the period 1920 to 1939. We evaluate strikes in the context of a war-of-attrition model and estimate the probability of strike outcomes (success, failure, or compromise) and capitulation times (for firms and workers) as functions of firm and striker characteristics. We find that workers capitulated first in the 1920s because firms used replacement workers as part of a larger strategy to break the union movement. In the 1930s, it was firms' turn to capitulate first because they had cut back on resources to fight strikes, even as workers became more belligerent.

Verification of lightning strike incidence as a Poisson process

Recordings of lightning strikes to a wide range of practical structures are used to investigate the statistical nature of lightning strike incidence. Using the scatter of the lightning incidence onto a given attractive area, comparisons are made between the theoretically estimated and the observed strike incidence. It is shown that the strike frequency data are well described by a Poisson distribution for the ground flash density and a log-normal distribution for lightning current. The uncertainties in the estimation of ground flash density are determined, taking into account factors such as year-to-year variability and the observation time span.

Population dynamics of the sheep blowfly Lucilia sericata: seasonal patterns and implications for control

Summary The infestation of sheep with blowfly larvae (sheep strike) is a significant animal welfare and economic problem in many regions of the world. Improved control requires greater knowledge of the population dynamics of the primary agent of strike in temperate areas, the blowfly Lucilia sericata (Diptera: Calliphoridae). The abundance of L. sericata was recorded on two farms in south‐west England between 1990 and 2000, and the time‐series analysed to describe and explain the nature of population change within and between years. To examine the catch time‐series for periodicity, the data were detrended, demeaned and tapered, and plotted against a day‐degree time base. Spectral analysis of periodograms showed that the clearest signal present was the low‐frequency seasonal cycle. The only other significant signal in both series had a periodicity corresponding to the day‐degree requirements for the entire life cycle of this insect species. This suggests that, within each season, the abundance pattern is composed of a series of semi‐discrete generation peaks. Significant density‐dependence was detected in the seasonal change in fly abundance and this was shown to be approximately compensatory in action. The results suggest that populations of L. sericata show relatively stable and predictable dynamics, with populations passing through three or four relatively discrete generations each year prior to diapause and limited by strong, apparently compensatory, density‐dependence each season. The results have important implications for the control of this insect parasite. In general, earlier and more intense farmer intervention, to reduce sheep susceptibility and treat struck animals during the blowfly season, would result in a lower L. sericata population and reduced strike incidence. However, at the start of the season, when fly abundance may be lower than the number of susceptible hosts, direct fly control, in addition to treatment, may be a more effective strategy.

A postal survey of blowfly strike occurrence in two Queensland shires.

To describe the occurrence of blowfly strike in sheep flocks in two shires located in south-eastern Queensland. Postal survey of woolgrowers within Stanthorpe and Inglewood shires. Questionnaire posted to woolgrowers in June 1999 seeking information on the monthly occurrence of flystrike and number of sheep at risk. Incidence of body strike and breech strike between August 1998 and May 1999 was 1.1 and 0.5%, respectively. The highest incidence of body strike and breech strike was reported in lambs (6.1%) and weaner sheep (1.5%), respectively. The seasonality of the incidence of body strike was bimodal (November and February), whereas the seasonality of the incidence of breech strike was unimodal (April). Occurrence of body strike within a 3-month period in flocks located within 40 to 50 km of each other was significantly (P < 0.05) clustered. Body strike appears to be more common than breech strike in the study area, mainly affects lambs and weaners and high-risk periods occur during late spring and autumn. Study results provide valuable information for planning blowfly strike control programs in the area such as timing of management procedures, use of fly traps), and enable the economic impact of flystrike on the industry in this area to be assessed.

Effectiveness of a synthetic lure to reduce blowfly strike incidence: preliminary observations

The effectiveness of a synthetic lure system (Lucitrap ®) to reduce blowfly strike incidence was assessed in a field trial conducted on two properties located in southern Queensland, Australia. Nine hundred and fifty sheep were randomised to treatment (one or more Lucitrap ® per 100 sheep) and control paddocks. Sheep were physically inspected for flystrike each month between August 1999 and May 2000. On one property, the risk of flystrike in the control group was 1.86 times (95% confidence interval, 1.19–2.90) greater than that in the treatment group. On the other property, two cases of flystrike were detected in the control group, but no cases were detected in the treatment group. These preliminary observations suggest that the use of Lucitrap ® can reduce the incidence of blowfly strike by up to about one-half. Blowfly traps have a role in controlling flystrike in circumstances in which sheep are susceptible to flystrike and the likelihood of flystrike occurring is at least moderate. The use of fly traps could assist the Australian wool industry to meet targets of reduced pesticide use.

Hitting the Bricks: An International Comparative Study of Conflict on the Waterfront

Although many longshoremen have a deserved reputation for militancy, the waterfront has been remarkably peaceful in some countries. The propensity of longshoremen to strike is explored in an historical and international comparative context, looking beyond industry‐level variables to determine the nature and causes of industrial action. The incidence of strikes on the waterfront depended ultimately on the propriety of labor regulation, most notably the operation of different “dock labor schemes” in combination with union leadership, management policy, and the efficacy of dispute resolution procedures.