Britain: The Wildcat Has Nine Lives

Some policymakers at Ford Motor Co. must rue the day, back in 1911, that the company set up shop in Britain. Though its pay scales run well above the industry average in Britain, Ford has been a prime target of wildcat strikes that torment the country's economy and damage its deteriorating trade position. Last year Ford lost 1.2 million man-hours to "unofficial" walkouts, often led by only a handful of professional soreheads. Lately the company has hoped to buy its way out of the strike nightmare by offering its workers a simple tit-for-tat: extra money for no wildcat strikes....