Nov. 26, 2019
Industrial action and mental health
Strikes and lockouts—two forms of industrial action in unionized jobs—are major sources of stress for unions and their members. Haskayne faculty member Nick Turner and Haskayne alumna Connie Deng along with their colleagues Julian Barling and Karen Spencer from Queen’s University investigated whether different types of industrial action (i.e., strikes and lockouts) have the same effect on mental health of union members. The study will be published in the Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science.
In 1997, Ontario government implemented the Education Quality Implementation Act (or Bill 160) which put a major strain on teachers’ work conditions. As a response, teachers from two school boards who belonged to the same union started industrial action at the same time. However, there was one difference: while one school board went on a strike, the other school board was faced with a lockout.
Six months following this incident, Turner and colleagues surveyed 156 school teachers from the two different school boards. The results were striking. Teachers in the lockout condition reported significantly poorer mental health compared to the teachers in the strike condition six months after they returned to work. As all other conditions such as the occupational group, demographic distribution, and the timing of the industrial action were identical, researchers had a higher confidence that the difference in mental health was attributable to the difference in the type of industrial action.
What does this mean for organizational leaders?
Even though both parties reach an agreement, the experience of industrial action can have long term effects on both the health and performance of employees. In this example, not only did the teachers’ well-being suffer from the stress of industrial action, but also the quality of their teaching could be adversely affected due to worsened well-being. Turner and colleagues discuss that labour disputes are stressful for everyone involved; strikes can serve as a coping mechanism for union members as they can participate in industrial relations activities, whereas this is not the case for lockouts
Reference
Turner, N., Deng, C., Barling, J., & Spencer, K. L. (2019). Differential mental health consequences of strikes and lockouts. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science / Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/cbs0000161