Employee Stress Reactions to a Municipal Government Strike

Christine M. Wickens

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DOI: 10.2190/CN.31.2.b

Abstract

In 2002, a large municipality in southern Ontario (Canada) experienced a sixteen-day strike, resulting in the shutdown of all municipal services. To determine the psychological impact of the strike on the employees, questionnaires were distributed to a sample of employees before, immediately following, and four months after the labor dispute. Results identified financial concern and cynicism toward the city and the union as predictors of employee anger immediately following the strike. Financial concern, city cynicism, and adaptiveness were identified as predictors of employee mood. Only financial concern and—to a lesser extent, anger and cynicism toward the union—declined following the conclusion of the strike. Implications of the results and recommendations for future research are discussed.

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