Has US strike activity gone up in recent years?
By Austin Tannenbaum
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YES
According to Labor Department data, there were 20 large strikes (involving 1,000 or more workers) in 2018, the most in more than a decade, and 25 in 2019.
Recent totals are low compared to pre-1980s rates. From 1947 to 1980, there were at least 100 large strikes per year. Some years saw 300, 400 or more. Activity plummeted after President Reagan fired 11,000 striking air traffic control workers in 1981. No year since 1989 has seen more than 50 major stoppages.
While large strikes are down in 2020, since March there have been more than 1,100 smaller walkouts and stoppages, spurred by demands for coronavirus protections and police accountability, according to Payday Report, a Pittsburgh-based labor publication.
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