The Most Strike-Prone Cities in Europe

1. Paris, France

Taking the crown as the most strike-prone city, and by no means is this a surprise, is Paris. The French capital is often a rendezvous point for demonstrators all over the country when a strike is taking place. In Europe, France has the most average days not worked due to strikes and lockouts between 2009 and 2019, and Paris also comes out on top for the highest number of publications in the media about its strikes. Some strikes are more periodical than others, for instance, each year train operator staff go on strike to ask for better working conditions and fairer pay, which disrupts transportation in France as well as in Paris. Strikes are known days in advance which can help visitors to plan their trip, a simple internet search can be extremely useful when travelling to the city of love.

2. London, United Kingdom

London ranks second in this list of the biggest strike-prone cities in Europe, and for a number of reasons. The United Kingdom has the third-highest average days not worked due to strikes between 2009 and 2019. London, however, gathers the most search volume for the keyword “strike London” and the second-biggest amount of publications for the same request, showing its popularity among users online. London is at the forefront of numerous strikes and protests, from hospital staff to railway workers or teachers, the capital doesn’t shy away from screaming its demands. Many publications cover work stoppage and give great indications of the best time to travel to the British capital.

3. Madrid, Spain

Spain closely follows France in this ranking. The country counts the second-biggest number of average days not worked due to strikes between 2009 and 2019. It is Madrid that is chosen by most workers as the place to protest and firmly expose their demands. Recently, it was to complain about health care cuts that incentivise people to walk across the Spanish capital. Madrid has racked up a large amount of Google searches and publications related to its strikes, which seems to make work stoppage a recurring trend in the country. Information about strikes in Madrid is easily found online and can be handy to plan the best moment of the year to travel to the South of Europe.

4. Barcelona, Spain

The fourth city in our ranking is also the second Spanish city to appear, Barcelona comes right after Madrid in this list. Workers in Barcelona often use striking as a way to be heard. And it shows, the city encompasses high numbers of search volume and publications related to strikes. All sectors can be a part of those protests, recently taxi drivers were on the front line of the demonstrations, striking to demand a review of the taxi law. Barcelona is a very touristy city, therefore strikes could impact tourism in some cases. Labour unions are always transparent about the dates and duration of strikes, which can be precious information for any travellers when visiting the sunny capital of Catalonia.

5. Marseille, France

Again, France is unsurprisingly ranking high on our list. After Paris follows Marseille, a sunny city located in the South of the country. Whenever an important strike and/or protest takes place in Paris, the same movement is mimicked all across the largest French cities, and Marseille is no exemption. The most recent strike and demonstration was against the retirement reform which gathered more than 20,000 people in the centre of Marseille. Before travelling to the “cité phocéene”, make sure to check the numerous articles about possible strikes to find the right time to visit the French Riviera.

Further Information About the Most Strike-Prone Countries in Europe

The data extracted from the International Labour Organization were sorted by economic activity, meaning, it is possible to highlight which sectors per country were on strike the most between 2009 to 2019. To learn more about this, UNSTATS provides online resources to understand the classification of economic sectors used by the International Labour Organization.

France

When analysing data for this ranking, France comes out on top as the most strike-prone country in Europe. The data from the International Labour Organization reveals that between 2009 and 2019, the sector which saw the most strikes in France was that of public administration.

Worth noting right now is the ongoing mass strikes over the French pension reform. French workers went on strike back in December 2019, also over the proposed pension reforms, with President Macron at the time wishing to introduce a “points system” of retirement, which threatened the current early retirement age of many public service workers. Fast forward to January 2023, and over 1 million workers in France have protested against the government’s plan to raise the pension age to 64. The mass mobilisation was called for by French trade unions and the last time they did that was 12 years ago when the retirement age was increased from 60 to 62.

Spain

Spain ranks as the second most strike-prone country, based on the average number of days not worked due to strikes and lockouts between 2009 and 2019. The sector which saw the highest number of non-worked days was manufacturing. In January 2019, the Nestlé factory in Girona saw 97% of its 750-person workforce strike, marking the first strike that the factory had experienced in 18 years. The workers were striking after close to a year of fruitless negotiations to agree on the conditions of a new collective bargaining agreement.

In Spain, potential disruption to the travel sector was announced mid-January 2023 as some 160 air traffic controllers at 16 Spanish airports have been called to strike for several days in January and February. The strikes are following the failure of negotiations on their fourth collective bargaining agreement.

The United Kingdom

A nation no stranger to strikes at the moment, the United Kingdom comes in the third place when compared to its European counterparts. Like France, the public administration sector was the one which recorded the largest number of days missed due to strikes.

A wave of industrial disputes and strikes began in May 2022, as workers walked out over demands for pay increases amid rising inflation. This topic remains a key theme for 2023, with a strike schedule recently released, revealing the planned dates for strikes across the country. The strikes include teachers, ambulance workers, nurses, physiotherapists, rail workers, university staff, civil servants, postal workers, and bus drivers. Many more professionals are discussing strikes, too, including junior doctors and firefighters.

Methodology:
The Most Strike-Prone Cities ranking was created by studying the biggest cities in Europe and collecting for each several data points. The first is the number of days not worked due to strikes and lockouts by economic activity from the International Labour Organization for which we computed the average for each country. The search volume for “strike + country” and “strike + city” was also considered, for each city/country we took both the English and translated keywords into the country’s language. The ranking also considered the number of online publications for “strike + city” both in English and translated.

About the data:
The main country-based data point (number of days not worked due to strike and lockout by economic activity) was extracted from the International Labour Organization’s database. However, several data were not available between 2009 and 2019 for some countries (which is the case for Italy and Greece), and others had incomplete data, therefore the average was calculated.

Furthermore, the data analysis is subject to variations in meaning and measurements, indeed, data collection can be subject to interpretations. Further information about data collection and its understanding can be found among the various resources of ILO, ETUI and the OECD.