Fifteen major strikes and lockouts began in 2013 that involved at least 1,000 workers and lasted at least one shift. The number was down from 19 major work stoppages that began during 2012.
There were 290,000 days idle from major work stoppages in 2013, also lower than 2012 with 1.13 million days idle.
Two-thirds of the major work stoppages lasted 3 days or less in 2013; state and local government accounted for 60 percent of them. Over half were in California.
The work stoppage between the New York City Public Schools and the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181 was the longest that began in 2013, lasting 30 days. It also resulted in 176,000 days idle, the most days idle of any major work stoppage in 2013. The greatest number of workers involved in a major work stoppage beginning in 2013 was between the University of California Medical Centers and American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 (including the University Professional and Technical Employees Union for one day), involving as many as 18,800 workers.
These data are from the Work Stoppages program. Annual data are not seasonally adjusted. To learn more, see “Major Work Stoppages in 2013,” (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-14-0217. The term “major work stoppages” includes both worker-initiated strikes and employer-initiated lockouts. BLS does not distinguish between lockouts and strikes in its statistics.
United States Department of Labor
