Unionized dockworkers are the most recent group of U.S. workers to back their demands for better contracts by walking off the job. Unions representing auto workers, actors, hotel housekeepers and airplane assembly workers all called strikes as organized labor made itself heard over the past year. Between 2022 and 2023, the number of work stoppages increased 9%, to 466 strikes and four lockouts, according to figures maintained by Cornell University’s IRL School. However, the number of workers involved in work stoppages last year was more than double than during the year before because of high-profile strikes by the Screen Actors Guild, the United Auto Workers and other large unions, according to the school’s research.
