U.S Strikes Drop Dramatically

A decade of Reaganism has left employers in a position to destroy unions without fear of significant political and public retribution, says a study on the decline of strikes in the United States.

The impact of the threat of strikebreaking on workers and their unions has been so dramatic that strikes in the U.S. have fallen to their lowest level in history, says the study “Public Policy and the Recent Decline in Strikes.”

Written by Greg Tarpinian, director of Labor Research Association in New York and professor Roger Keeran, the study notes that while 424 major strikes took place in the United States in 1974, only 51 strikes occurred in 1989.

While workers now take great risks to go on strike, employers in many instances find strikes beneficial.

“Workers who go on strike do so not only with the prospect of lost wages and benefits for the duration of the strike, but with the prospect of complete job loss. On the other hand, employers who take a strike today rarely face the prospect of a shutdown of their operations, and, in fact, find their ability to completely eliminate the union from their workplace greatly enhanced,” the study says.

Corporations now force strikes as a means of union busting, it contends.

“With their new found power to permanently replace striking workers, employers no longer see the strike as something to be avoided. On the contrary, many employers are encouraging workers to strike with the aim of decertifying or dramatically weakening their unions.”

This reflects a major change from the 1970's where virtually no employers would use temporary of permanent replacements for strikers.

Permanent replacements were used or threatened in 30 per cent of strikes which took place in 1989, up (from) 23 per cent in 1985.

In most strikes where replacements were used the unions were destroyed and strikers lost their jobs, the study notes.

This article appeared in The Connexion Digest #54, February 1992.

Reprinted from the Canadian Tribune. Subscriptions are $15/year from Canadian Tribute, 290A Danforth Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M4K 1N6.

(CX4347)

Subject Headings

Labour Unions  Strikebreakers  Strikes  Unions

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