Workers waged hundreds of work stoppages in 2021, marking millions of total “strike days” over the course of the year that saw a resurgence of the U.S. labor movement but a decline in overall union membership.
According to a new reportCornell University researchers found that 140,000 workers went on strike last year, or participated in a work stoppage in 265 strikes and lockouts. The workers collectively logged more than 3.2 million strike-related days.
The data shows that workers went on strike most often for the reason of pay. Nearly 60,000 workers were involved in 160 work stops demanding better pay. With over a million strike day per year, workers also demanded better benefits like retirement and health care.
The data lends credence to the idea that 2021 was a major year for the labor movement, which advocates deemed the “year of the worker.” The year saw a flurry of labor activity among unionized and nonunionized workers even as overall union membership continued to decline in 2021. Workers were involved in major strikes Kellogg, John DeereKaiser Permanente and Graduate studentsColumbia University is just one example.
The research also corroborates evidence that 2021 did indeed experience “Striketober” – where the months of October and November saw an increase in the number of work stoppages, relative to the rest of the year.
According to Eli Friedman, Cornell labor professor and report co-author, part of the motivation for conducting the research is to present more comprehensive data than that of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which doesn’t record strikes involving fewer than 1,000 workers thanks to Ronald Reagan-era budget cuts. This means that only a small percentage of work stoppages are recorded by the BLS. Although it has not yet published a report for the year, it appears to have. only logged 13 work stoppagesAccording to its monthly data, 2021
Because this is the first year that researchers have put together more comprehensive data, there’s no baseline from recent years with which to compare last year’s data. Comparable to BLS data analysis report from the late 1970s, however, 2021’s work stoppages are only a fraction of what they used to be; in 1979, BLS recorded nearly 5,000 work stoppages, with the median stoppage lasting about a month.
After many years of relative dormancy the labor movement seems to be on the rebound. Friedman suggests that strikes in 2021 could have been inspired by the 2018 labor movement. 2019The strike rate increased in the following year: Those strikes may have “captured the imagination” of the labor movement, Friedman told Truthout.
According to research, nearly a third (33%) of work-stoppages last year were waged by nonunion workers could indicate that workers are ready for unrest. As last year’s so-called Great resignation demonstrated, many labor protests are individualized, but “more collective forms of response are still in the arsenal,” Friedman said.
Major union campaigns are another sign that the labor movement has grown stronger, with Bessemer in Alabama. Amazon workers’ campaignLast year was a big year for the arts Starbucks workers’ union driveAlmost every day, the size of the company is increasing.
Without Institutional actionLike the passing of the Protecting the Right to Organize Act. other mass forms of actionHowever, it is unlikely that the labor movement will break through and begin to rebuild to its former levels. seen in the 20th century.
“The Democratic Party, despite moving to the left in some ways, is not making laborers or a reform of labor institutions a priority,” Friedman said. “And so there’s a question: ‘At what point does this bottom-up pressure of work unrest create enough pressure on the political system to create some kind of legal and institutional reforms?’, which I think pretty much everyone recognizes will be necessary to reverse the decline in unionization.”
