Strike action
See also general strike, or for other uses see: strike (disambiguation).Strike action, often simply called a
strike is the mass refusal by
employees to perform
work due to certain
grievances. If an agreement could not be reached, workers could strike, or refuse to work until certain demands were met. Strikes first became important during the
industrial revolution, when mass
labour became important in
factories and
mines. In most countries they were quickly made illegal as factory owners had far more political power than the workers. Most western countries legalized striking partially in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century.
Strikes have also been used to force governments to change policies or even to bring down a government. A notable example is the Gdańsk shipyard strike led by
Lech Wałęsa. This strike was significant in the struggle for political change in
Poland, and was an important milestone along the way to the fall of Communist Party rule in Eastern Europe.
The strike tactic has a very long history. Towards the end of the
20th dynasty, under Pharaoh
Ramses III in
ancient Egypt in the
12th century BCE, the workers of the royal
necropolis organized the first known strike or workers' uprising in history. The event was reported in detail on a
papyrus at the time, which has been preserved, and is currently located in
Turin [ François Daumas, (1969). Ägyptische Kultur im Zeitalter der Pharaonen, pp. 309. Knaur Verlag, Munich. ].
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New York City MTA strike, 2005. |
Most strikes involve actions by
labor unions during
collective bargaining with an
employer. Generally, such actions are rare: according to the
News Media Guild, 98% of union contracts in the United States are settled each year without a strike. Occasionally, workers decide to strike without the sanction of a labor union, either because the union refuses to endorse such a tactic, or because the workers concerned are not unionized. Such strikes are often described as
unofficial. Strikes without formal union authorization are also known as
wildcat strikes.
In many countries, wildcat strikes do not enjoy the same legal protections as standard union strikes, and may result in penalties for the union members who participate or their union. The same often applies in the case of strikes conducted without an official ballot of the union membership, as is required in some countries, such as the
United Kingdom.
A strike may consist of workers refusing to attend work or
picketing outside the workplace so as to prevent or dissuade other people from working in their place or conducting business with their employer. Less frequently workers may occupy the workplace, but refuse either to do their jobs or to leave. This is known as a
sit-down strike. Another unconventional tactic is
work-to-rule, in which workers perform their tasks exactly as they are required to but no better. For example, workers might follow all safety regulations in such a way that it impedes their productivity or they might refuse to work any
overtime. Such strikes may in some cases be a form of "partial strike" or "slowdown", which is "unprotected" in some circumstances under
United States labor law, meaning that while the tactic itself is not unlawful, the employer may fire the employees who engage in it.
A
Japanese strike on the contrary has the workers maximizing their output.They are nominally working as usual but the surplus can break the planning, especially in
just-in-time systems.
During the development boom of the 1970s in Australia the
Green ban was developed by certain socially more conscious unions. This is a form of strike action taken by a trade union or other organised labour group for environmentalist or conservationist purposes. This developed from the
black ban, strike action taken against a particular job or employer in order to protect the economic interests of the strikers.
United States labor law also draws a distinction, in the case of private sector employers covered by the
National Labor Relations Act, between "economic" and "unfair labor practice" strikes. An employer may not fire, but may permanently replace, workers who engage in a strike over economic issues. On the other hand, employers charged with committing unfair labor practices (ULPs) may not replace employees who strike over ULPs, and must fire any strikebreakers they have hired as replacements in order to reinstate the striking workers.
Strikes may be specific to a particular workplace, employer, or unit within a workplace, or they may encompass an entire industry, or every worker within a city or country. Strikes that involve all workers, or a number of large and important groups of workers, in a particular community or region are known as
general strikes. Under some circumstances, strikes may take place in order to put pressure on the State or other authorities or may be a response to unsafe conditions in the workplace.
A
sympathy strike is, in a way, a small scale version of a general strike in which one group of workers refuses to cross a picket line established by another as a means of supporting the striking workers. Sympathy strikes, once the norm in the construction industry in the
United States, have been made much more difficult to conduct due to decisions of the
National Labor Relations Board permitting employers to establish separate or "reserved" gates for particular trades, making it an unlawful
secondary boycott for a union to establish a picket line at any gate other than the one reserved for the employer it is picketing. Sympathy strikes may be undertaken by a union as an organization or by individual union members choosing not to cross a picketline.
A
jurisdictional strike in
United States labor law refers to a concerted refusal to work undertaken by a union to assert its members' right to particular job assignments and to protest the assignment of disputed work to members of another union or to unorganized workers.
Employers of labor can also go on strike; either through a lock-out of workers (blocking workers from working normally, resulting in loss of wages) or through an investment strike (refusing to commit funds to maintaining or expanding production).
A
student strike has the students (sometimes supported by faculty) not attending schools.Unlike other strikes, the target of the protest (the educational institution or the government) does not suffer a direct economical loss but one of public image.
A
Hunger strike is the voluntary refusal to eat. Hunger strikes are often used in prisons as a form of political protest. Like student strikes, a hunger strike aims to worsen the public image of the target.
The
Railway Labor Act bars strikes by United States airline and railroad employees except in narrowly defined circumstances. The National Labor Relations Act generally permits strikes, but provides for a mechanism to enjoin strikes in industries in which a strike would create a national emergency. The federal government most recently invoked these statutory provisions to obtain an injunction against a slowdown by the
International Longshore and Warehouse Union in 2002.
Some jurisdictions prohibit all strikes by public employees. Other jurisdictions limit strikes only by certain categories of workers, particularly those regarded as critical to society:
police and
firefighters are among the groups commonly barred from striking in these jurisdictions. Some states, such as
Iowa, do not allow teachers in public schools to strike. Workers have sometimes circumvented these restrictions by falsely claiming inability to work due to illness — this is sometimes called a "
sickout" or "
blue flu". The term "
red flu" has sometimes been used to describe this action when undertaken by firefighters.
It is also illegal for an employee of the
United States Federal Government to strike. President
Ronald Reagan terminated
air traffic controllers after their refusal to return to work from an
illegal strike in 1981.
In
Marxist-Leninist regimes, such as the former
USSR or the
People's Republic of China, striking is illegal and viewed as
counter-revolutionary. Since the government in such systems claims to represent the working class, it has been argued that unions and strikes were not necessary.
Most other totalitarian systems of the left and right also ban strikes. In some democratic countries, such as
Mexico, strikes are legal but subject to close regulation by the state.
In 2003 there was a
Firefighter dispute in the United Kingdom. The armed forces had to provide temporary cover, using outdated machinery. The strike action was not illegal, although it was condemned by many.
The term
"scab" is a highly derogatory and "fighting word" most frequently used to refer to people who continue to work when trade unionists go on strike action. This nearly invariably breaks solidarity with the workforce and often results in their
shunning. The classic example from United Kingdom industrial history is that of the miners from Nottinghamshire, who during the
UK miners' strike (1984-1985) failed to support strike action by fellow mineworkers in other parts of the country. Those who supported the strike claimed that this was because they enjoyed more favourable mining conditions and thus better wages. However the Nottinghamshire miners argued that they did not participate because the law required a ballot for a national strike and their area vote had seen around 75% vote against a strike.
People hired to replace striking workers are often derogatively termed
scabs by those in favour of the strike. The terms
strike-breaker,
blackleg, and
scab labour are also used. Trade unionists also use the epithet "scab" to refer to workers who are willing to accept terms that union workers have rejected and interfere with the strike action. Some say that the word comes from the idea that the "scabs" are covering a wound. However, "scab" was an old-fashioned English insult. An older word is "blackleg" and this is found in the old folk song,
Blackleg Miner, which has been sung by many groups.
During economic strikes, scabs may be hired as permanent replacements.
Cases of the word "scab" being used inappropriately
There have been known cases of people using the word "scab" to mean merely "unauthorized", to describe themselves, without knowing all the implications of the word, probably due to being out of touch with the
trade union scene:-
*Around 1980 when
CB radio was widespread but illegal in
Britain, a CB radio users' club in the
Hastings area called itself "South Coast Area
Breakers": that name's initials come out as "SCAB". Hastings is not an industrial area.
*The students at
Manchester University normally publish a periodical called "GRIP". One year while its usual editors were busy with
exams, other people published editions with various names including once "SCAB".
The counterpart to a
strike is a
lockout, in which an employer refuses to allow employees to work. Two of the three employers involved in the Caravan park grocery workers strike of 2003-2004 locked out their employees in response to a strike against the third member of the employer bargaining group. Lockouts are, with certain exceptions, lawful under
United States labor law.
*
Statschka [Strike], Director:
Sergei Eisenstein, Soviet Union 1924
*
Brüder [brothers], Director: Werner Hochbaum, Germany 1929 – On the general strike in the port of Hamburg, Germany in 1896/97
*
Salt of the Earth, Director:
Herbert J. Biberman, USA 1953 – Fictionalized account of an actual zinc-miners' strike in
Silver City, New Mexico, in which women took over the picket line to circumvent an injunction barring "striking miners" from company property
*
La Reprise du travail aux usines Wonder, Director: Jacques Willemont France 1968 – A short film on the resumption of work after
Mai 68*
Harlan County, U.S.A., Director:
Barbara Kopple, USA 1976 – A film about a very long and bitter strike of coal miners in Kentucky
American Dream, Director:
Barbara Kopple, USA 1990 – A
documentary film about the unsuccessful
1985-
1986 meatpacker's strike against
Hormel Foods in
Ausitn,
Minnesota.
*
Matewan, Director:
John Sayles, USA 1987 – A fictionalized history of one episode in the labour wars between West Virginia coal miners and mineowners during the 1920s
*
American Dream, U.S.A., Director:
Barbara Kopple, USA 1991 – A film about the strike at the Hormel plant in Austin, Minnesota
*
Bread and Roses, Director:
Ken Loach(UK), USA 2000 – A film about janitors fighting for the right to unionize in contemporary Los Angeles
*
Newsies, Director: Kenny Ortega, USA 1992 – A musical loosely based on the 1899 strike by the New York newsboys.
*
Billy Elliot, Director:
Stephen Daldry, (UK) 2000 – story about a young boy in a Northern English town who wants to become a ballet dancer; set on the backdrop of the 1984
Miners' Strike in the United Kingdom.
*
Labor law*
General strike*
List of strikes*
Winnipeg General Strike* Stephanie Smith,
Household Words: Bloomers, sucker, bombshell, scab, nigger, cyber (2006) on changing usage of the word
*
Strike histories from around the world
