The improvement came despite a two-week strike in Britain that Ford officials said cost about $100 million.

In 1997, the teachers' union protested with a province-wide two-week strike against the Harris government's education initiatives.

In 1953 the union engaged in a two-week strike for a maintenance of membership clause in its contract with the university.

An attempt to emulate such progress in 1987 ended in almost three months of wildcat action followed by a damaging two-week official strike.

Last summer the Government abandoned a plan to cut 4,000 jobs in face of a two-week strike and violent protests at Paris's two main airports.

A two-week strike by its 2,100 pilots last September, and a subsequent seat sale to revive business, largely explains its $10.9 million loss in 1998.

The school superintendent wants to dismiss 37 teachers on the ground that their two-week strike in September has made them unfit to instruct children.

Staff were also banned from speaking to the media during a two-week strike in February 2006.

Another driver, who declined to give his name, said that he was hoping for at least a two-week strike.

To protest the unbudging stance of the hotel group, union workers initiated a two-week strike at four hotels on Sept. 29.