Strike (labor relations)

I

Introduction

Strike (labor relations), in labor relations, organized work stoppage carried out by a group of employees, for the purpose either of enforcing demands relating to employment conditions on their employer or of protesting unfair labor practices. In Europe and Asia, strikes have sometimes been called for political purposes. Strikes are conducted most frequently by workers organized into trade unions. A sympathy strike occurs when a union stops work to support the strike of another union. See Trade Union; Trade Unions in the United States.

II

Types of Strikes

Workers may engage in a strike to obtain some improvement in the conditions of employment, such as higher wages or shorter working hours; to forestall an adverse change in the conditions of employment, such as a lowering of wages; or to prevent the employer from carrying out actions viewed by the workers as detrimental to their interests, such as the employment of nonunion labor or the discharge of a worker without adequate justification. Strikes may also be conducted with the aim of compelling an employer to recognize a labor union as the legal collective-bargaining representative of the employees, and to conclude a labor contract with the union. A strike is usually undertaken as a measure of last resort, adopted, for example, when the employer has rejected settlement of an existing dispute by methods provided for in a labor contract, such as negotiation or mediation. The political strike, on the other hand, may be used as a means of compelling a government to accede to certain demands of the workers, or as a revolutionary weapon designed to help secure the overthrow of a government.

III

Strike Tactics

The principal tactical aim of all strikes is to achieve the total suspension of work within the employer's establishment. The most widely used secondary or subsidiary means of achieving this aim, invoked after the workers have quit work and left the business establishment, is the practice of picketing. Many labor unions maintain strike funds, which are used for the financial support of the strikers pending the settlement of the dispute. In some cases, striking unions appeal to other unions and to the public for financial support.

Striking workers almost invariably regard themselves as still in the employ of the establishment against which they are striking. They therefore tend to react bitterly to attempts made by employers to hire nonstrikers to replace them. Such attempts have often led to fierce fighting between the two groups as the strikers sought to prevent the nonstrikers' entrance into the place of employment.

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According to the National Labor Relations Board, when a strike is carried out for the purpose of obtaining better conditions for employees, it is considered an economic strike. An unfair labor practice strike is one in which an employer has engaged in an unfair labor practice prohibited by the National Labor Relations Act. In an economic strike, the employer may seek to hire replacements and promise them permanent employment; the employer need not rehire those workers who have been replaced. In an unfair labor practice strike, however, the employer loses the right of replacement and is obliged to rehire those workers who were discharged during the strike and to discharge any replacements who were hired after the beginning of the strike.

A technique aimed at ensuring the suspension of operations within a struck establishment and at preventing the entry of nonstrikers is the sit-down strike, which came into widespread use in the U.S. during the 1930s. Workers engaging in this form of strike simply occupy the place of employment, refusing to leave until a settlement of the disputed issues is made. Such action constitutes trespass on the private property of the employer and is therefore illegal; nevertheless, the sit-down strike has proven highly effective in many instances.

IV

Strikes in the U.S.

Very few strikes occurred in the U.S. before the American Civil War, chiefly because of the absence of large-scale industry and the lack of organization among the workers. The earliest recorded strike in the American colonies took place among the bakers of New York City in 1741, and a notable series of early strikes was conducted by the shoemakers of Philadelphia between 1792 and 1805.

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