Chillin'Competition

A non competition related post.

Yesterday, Belgium was on strike (and so was lazy Alfonso, who did not post on the blog).

Guess what, this was a Monday. That is the day after Sunday, which itself is the day after Saturday.

Intriguing. I cant help but thinking that strikes are often a far cry from their purpose,  i.e. genuine social protest, and in turn that they are a convenient means to make week-ends longer (or earlier).

The low turnout in the streets yesterday actually confirms this (in particular when the temperature comes close to 0°C).

I made a quick and dirty research on strikes in Belgium over 2011:

• The 4 March general strike took place on…. a Friday
• The 13 May strike in railways took place on … a Friday

I’d be interested to see a more comprehensive body of evidence, but my gut feeling is that there are many other examples.

The next question, obviously,  is, how to handle this? After all, in several Member States the freedom to strike is  protected by the law.

My take: maintain the freedom to strike, but prohibit 1-day strikes on Fridays and Mondays.