Harald Dale-Olsen (Institute for Social Research)
Elin Svarstad
Strike as collective action is a right embedded in both EU and Norwegian legislation, implicitly embedding the idea that participating in a strike should not affect long-term career outcomes. After a strike in 2016, rights to local bargaining were introduced in the Norwegian hotel-and restaurant sector, where bargaining previously only occurred centrally. Applying Norwegian administrative linked-employer-employee data from 2015-2019, we show that relative to workers in retail trade, where wages are set centrally, hotel-and-restaurant-workers at workplaces covered by trade union agreements experienced negligible wage changes in levels, but increased wage compression at the top. The striking workers, however, experienced lower hourly wages, weaker labour market attachment, and higher probability of receiving welfare benefits. Thus, for these workers, the strike brought long-term costs in addition to those cost experienced under the strike.