Why do strikes work

In addition to strikes protected by the NLRA, many states also have enacted legislation regarding strikes, so it is imperative to refer to your own state laws as well as federal law. You may be trying to access this site from a secured browser on the server. Please enable scripts and reload this page. Reuse Permissions.

Page Content. The main types of strikes covered by the NLRA are: Unfair labor practice strikes, which protest employers' illegal activities. Economic strikes, which may occur when there are disputes over wages or benefits.

Recognition strikes, which are intended to force employers to recognize unions. Jurisdictional strikes, which are concerted refusals to work to affirm members' right to particular job assignments and to protest the assignment of work to another union or to unorganized employees. Labor Relations. You have successfully saved this page as a bookmark. The hours are better and she finally feels respected. Contact us at letters time.

Business U. Registered Nurses and supporters stand in a picket line and wave to cars as they drive by outside St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts on February 24, By Alana Semuels. Jess Deyo and her daughters on the picket line in Worcester, Mass. Support for labor unions has increased in recent years.

Related Stories. The 25 Defining Works of the Black Renaissance. They retain their status as employees and cannot be discharged, but they can be replaced by their employer. If the employer has hired bona fide permanent replacements who are filling the jobs of the economic strikers when the strikers apply unconditionally to go back to work, the strikers are not entitled to reinstatement at that time. However, if the strikers do not obtain regular and substantially equivalent employment, they are entitled to be recalled to jobs for which they are qualified when openings in such jobs occur if they, or their bargaining representative, have made an unconditional request for their reinstatement.

Unfair labor practice strikers defined. Employees who strike to protest an unfair labor practice committed by their employer are called unfair labor practice strikers. Such strikers can be neither discharged nor permanently replaced. When the strike ends, unfair labor practice strikers, absent serious misconduct on their part, are entitled to have their jobs back even if employees hired to do their work have to be discharged.

If the Board finds that economic strikers or unfair labor practice strikers who have made an unconditional request for reinstatement have been unlawfully denied reinstatement by their employer, the Board may award such strikers backpay starting at the time they should have been reinstated.

Strikes unlawful because of purpose. A strike may be unlawful because an object, or purpose, of the strike is unlawful. A strike in support of a union unfair labor practice, or one that would cause an employer to commit an unfair labor practice, may be a strike for an unlawful object. For example, it is an unfair labor practice for an employer to discharge an employee for failure to make certain lawful payments to the union when there is no union-security agreement in effect Section 8 a 3.

A strike to compel an employer to do this would be a strike for an unlawful object and, therefore, an unlawful strike. Strikes of this nature will be discussed in connection with the various unfair labor practices in a later section of this guide.

After 13 days out, the teachers declared victory and returned to their classrooms with a 5 percent raise. Strikes by unorganized workers led to the founding of unions. Strikes won the first union contracts.

It works because we withhold something that the employer needs—its production, its good public image, its profits, and above all its control over us. A strike reveals something that employers would prefer we not notice: they need us. Workplaces are typically run as dictatorships. The discovery that your boss does not have absolute power over you—and that in fact, you and your co-workers can exert power over him—is a revelation.

People were smiling and happy. In a good strike, everyone has a meaningful role. Strikers develop new skills and a deeper sense that they own and run their union. New leaders emerge from the ranks and go on to become stewards. A few stubborn co-workers finally see why the union matters and sign on as members. Allies from faith groups, neighborhood groups, or other unions adopt your cause. You and your co-workers lose some fear of the boss—and the boss gains some fear of you.