San José, CA – In February, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its annual report on major strikes in the previous year. In 2024, there were 31 major strikes, involving 271,500 workers. A major strike is one involving at least 1000 workers and lasting at least one shift. A total of more than 3 million days’ work didn’t happen because of major strikes.

In the last 15 years, major workers’ strikes have been on the upswing since an all-time low in 2009. That year, there were only five major strikes, with 12,500 worker out on the picket line. The total number of days of work lost because of strikes that year was only 124,000.

But the number of strikes, striking workers, and days out on strike is still much lower than the recent peak in 1974, when there were 424 major strikes. That year, almost 1.8 million workers, or more than six times as many as 2024, were out on strike and almost 32 million days of work didn’t happen.

In terms of sectors, 14% of the workers on strike last year were in manufacturing, almost the same as their share of workers which was 13.8% in 2023 (latest data available).

Government workers, who make up only 11.8% of the workforce, were more likely to go on strike, with 42% of strikers working for a government at local and state levels. Government workers are more likely to be in a union, with 32% of government workers belonging to unions as opposed to less than 6% for the private sector workers.

However, the ratio of government to private sector workers on strike can vary a lot. In 2023, private sector strike numbers surged, with the strikes at UAW and Kaiser Permanente. However, in 2018 there was a wave of public school teacher strikes, with statewide strikes by teachers in West Virginia, Oklahoma and Arizona, along with local strikes in many other states driving up strike days among government workers.

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