Around 120,000 workers walked out in 2022, marking a 49% increase from 2021 — and a sign that workers' willingness to take action for what they want remains strong.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' annual work stoppages data, there were 23 major work stoppages — meaning stoppages that involved at least 1,000 workers and lasted for at least one shift — that started in 2022. All told, 120,600 workers walked out in 2022.
It follows a cascade of stoppages in 2021, which saw the number of walkouts double from 2020.
The following chart shows the number of workers who were involved in major work stoppages that occurred in the past two decades:
While the latest figure for 2022 is much lower than the 393,700 workers part of major work stoppages that started in 2000, it's still an increase of 39,900 people from the 80,700 workers just a year prior in 2021. The above chart shows that there isn't a clear trend in the last two decades in the number of people participating in these stoppages, but the last two years have shown some renewed interest.
"In the past couple years, we've definitely seen a resurgence in the labor movement," Margaret Poydock, a policy analyst and government affairs specialist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, told Insider. "We've seen strong support in labor, because workers can see what unions can do for them. They see that unions can help negotiate better pay, better benefits, safer working conditions. The pandemic kind of revealed how much work sucked."
Other data suggests that work stoppages of all sizes soared in 2022. Cornell University's ILR School's labor tracker found that the number of work stoppages soared by 52% to 424 in 2022, with 224,000 workers — about a 60% increase — walking out.
Their data, which tracks all work stoppages, not just "major" ones, found that nonunion workers organized around a third of strikes in 2022, suggesting that the appetite to walk out and organize is still high. Top issues among strikers were pay, health and safety, and increased staffing.
Smaller scale strikes were also popular, with a little under half of the stoppages that Cornell recorded involving fewer than 50 workers. Food and accommodation workers led the charge in organizing walkouts, and 91% of those actions were propelled by either Starbucks workers or Fight for $15 workers.
All told, even BLS's official accounting of major stoppages shows an increased appetite for walking out. However, it still pales in comparison to previous highs; in 1952, the year with the highest recorded number of major stoppages, there were 470 walkouts. Organized labor has generally seen declines since those post-World War II highs; 2022 also saw the lowest-ever rate of union membership, even with renewed interest in organizing.
But 2022's bounce back is also a marked increase from the low of 5 in 2009, and builds on momentum from the year prior.
Major union contracts across a slew of industries are set to expire in 2023, Poydock noted. If the labor market remains strong, with workers able to demand better, "I definitely think we'll see an increase in strike activities," Poydock said.
