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Work Stoppages: 1940-1949

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has collected information on work stoppages in the U.S. through a few publications dating back to the 1880s. Starting with 1947, the Work Stoppages program captured stoppages involving 6 workers or more lasting at least one full shift or day. Beginning in 1982, the program limited its scope to capture major work stoppages. Major work stoppages are defined as any stoppage that involves 1,000 or more workers and lasts for at least one full work shift.

An annual listing summarizing major work stoppages from 1947-present is maintained, and additional resources and historical publications are available in the Work Stoppages Resources section at the end of this factsheet. Note that information presented in this fact sheet is not directly comparable to the annual listing for 1947-1949 because of some difference in methodology. One should also note, some values reported are rounded in thousands.

Before diving into the work stoppages, it’s important to understand the economic situation of the 1940s. The decade experienced significant labor activity in the U.S. The number of work stoppages, workers involved, and days idle varied greatly across 1940’s, influenced by the World War II, post war economic adjustment, and evolving labor conditions and legislation.

Number of work stoppages

The Work Stoppages program tracks both the number of stoppages that began in a given month or year as well as the number of stoppages in effect. Stoppages beginning in a month or year are new stoppages that began during the time frame while those in effect count any stoppage observed during the time frame. Specifically, this includes stoppages that began in a previous month or year and continued into the time period being considered. The following chart displays the total number of work stoppages beginning and in effect each year from 1940 to 1949. The lowest number of work stoppages beginning occurred in 1940, while the lowest number of stoppages in effect was in 1942. During 1946, the first post war year, there were over 8,700 work stoppages in effect.

Chart 1 data table

Table for chart 1: Number of work stoppages, 1940-1949
Year	Beginning in	In effect
1940	2508	4067
1941	4444	6742
1942	2812	3563
1943	3752	4139
1944	5056	5713
1945	4760	6229
1946	4985	8723
1947	3693	6296
1948	3419	5622
1949	3606	5996
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Compensation Survey, Work Stoppages Program.

Work Stoppages during World War II

During the entire war period few strikes were authorized by national or international unions. Until V-day in 1945, work stoppages generally followed the pattern of preceding war years: they were numerous but, for the most part, small and quickly terminated. “No strike” and “no lock-out” pledges made to the President of the United States at the inception of the war, in December 1941 were generally observed by the business and union leaders.

Table 1. Work stoppages during WWII
Time period	Number of work stoppages in a period	Number of workers involved in stoppages (thousands)	Days idle (thousands)
Total WWII	14,781	6,744	36,301
December 8-31, 1941	84	16	303
1942	2,988	840	4183
1943	3,752	1,981	13,501
1944	4,956	2,110	8,721
January 1-August 14, 1945	2,971	1,791	9,598
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Compensation Survey, Work Stoppages Program.

Number of workers involved in work stoppages

The major work stoppages program provides quantitative information about workers involved in a work stoppage beginning in a period and in effect. The period can be a year or a month, like in the following chart. Chart 2 shows the monthly distribution of the number of workers involved in a stoppage beginning and in effect from 1940-1949. It is apparent, as in the previous chart, that 1946 was not an average year even by the 40’s metrics. It was the first postwar year. Most work stoppages in chart 1 are not major work stoppages as they do not involve a minimum of 1,000 workers to be considered “major”.

Chart 2 data table

Table for chart 2: Number of workers involved (in thousands) in work stoppages beginning and in effect each year, 1940-1949
Year	Number of workers involved, beginning in	Number of workers involved, in effect
1940	577	862
1941	2,390	3,311
1942	813	953
1943	1,981	3,158
1944	2,115	2,455
1945	3,467	4,862
1946	4,596	10,401
1947	2,840	3,883
1948	1,957	3,276
1949	3,031	5,308
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Compensation Survey, Work Stoppages Program

Breaking down the workers’ involvement in stoppages further by categories demonstrates this vividly. Chart 3 groups stoppages by number of workers involved, such as “6 and under 20 workers”, or “10,000 and over workers”. Throughout the decade only a fraction of all work stoppages involved over 1,000 workers. Each year of the 1940-1949 decade, the most frequent number of workers involved in work stoppages was between 20 to 100. In 1946 alone, there were almost 1,800 such stoppages.

Chart 3 data table

Table for chart 3: Annual number of work stoppages by number of workers involved ending, 1940-1949
Year	6 and under 20	20-99 workers	100 to 249	250-499 workers	500-999 workers	1,000-4,999 workers	5,000-9,999 workers	10,000 and over
1940	610	1,039	425	193	116	95	11	4
1941	721	1,570	872	492	335	270	25	29
1942	489	1,163	630	348	228	163	9	6
1943	465	1,247	865	517	357	250	23	10
1944	574	1,567	1,197	760	460	348	36	16
1945	467	1,416	1,031	673	496	435	62	42
1946	620	1,798	1,142	632	378	343	40	37
1947	493	1,378	838	449	265	234	21	15
1948	496	1,204	751	466	257	205	20	20
1949	621	1,358	717	407	241	219	25	18
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Compensation Survey, Work Stoppages Program

Days idle

The Days idle (or man-days idle) is a measurement that quantifies the impact of work stoppages, such as strikes and walkouts, on a labor force. It reflects the total worker days lost by multiplying the number of workers involved and number of days impacted. The spike in work stoppages metrics around 1946 can be attributed to a transition of the economy from wartime to peacetime. In fact, the increase happened right after VJ-Day. Here are Charts 4 and 5 to visualize the dynamics.

Chart 4 data table

Table for chart 4: Days idle (in thousands) by month, 1945
Month	Days idle
January	247
February	290
March	387
April	442
May	666
June	484
July	586
August	706
September	781
October	915
November	740
December	458
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Compensation Survey, Work Stoppages Program

Chart 5 data table

Table for chart 5: Days idle (in thousands) by month, 1940-1949
Year	January	February	March	April	May	June	July	August	September	October	November	December
1940	247	290	387	442	666	484	586	706	781	915	740	458
1941	663	1,135	1,558	7,113	2,172	1,504	1,326	185	1,953	1,925	1,397	476
1942	331	357	402	367	322	586	417	449	387	244	128	193
1943	452	117	179	662	1,468	4,699	695	357	210	1,013	2,863	787
1944	710	459	441	614	1,443	727	652	959	786	756	789	387
1945	199	388	775	1,472	2,219	1,886	1,769	1,712	4,341	8,611	6,935	7,718
1946	19,700	22,900	13,800	14,300	13,700	4,580	3,970	3,900	4,880	6,220	4,980	3,130
1947	1,340	1,230	1,100	8,540	6,730	3,960	3,970	2,520	1,970	1,780	829	590
1948	1,050	913	6,440	7,410	4,080	2,220	2,670	2,100	2,540	2,060	1,910	713
1949	726	675	3,460	1,880	3,430	4,470	2,350	2,140	6,270	14,500	6,270	1,350
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Compensation Survey, Work Stoppages Program

This major economic shift, together with pent up labor demands, inflation, and the strength of unions, created a perfect storm for widespread labor unrest. Here is the same measurement for 40’s decade retrospective.

Some of the largest strikes in U.S. history happened in 1946, and many of these stoppages lasted for extended periods. For example:

Steelworkers strike: Approximately 750,000 steelworkers went on strike for about 25 days.
Coal Mine strike: Involved over 400,000 workers approximately and lasted for 59 days.
Railroad Workers strike: More than quarter million worker were involved in the stoppage, disrupting transportation and logistics across the United States for several weeks.

Duration of stoppages

The length of time, or duration, that a work stoppage lasted helps in understanding the impact a work stoppage may have on those involved. Duration is expressed in calendar days and includes nonworking days, like holidays and weekends. A stoppage lasting 3 months would be recorded as 90 days rather than the 60-70 workdays that would typically take place across 3 months. Chart 6 displays the number of stoppages by duration each year and Table 2 contains the annual average duration of work stoppages.

Chart 6 data table

Table for chart 6: Number of work stoppages by duration, 1940-1949
Duration of Work stoppages	1940	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945	1946	1947	1948	1949
Less then 1 week	989	1,728	1,841	2,984	3,831	2,900	1,918	1,331	1,321	1,494
1 week and less then 1/2 month	556	1,069	615	506	759	1,450	1045	802	708	735
1/2 and less then month	422	775	336	177	260	1,450	818	672	590	592
1 and less then 2 month	312	496	155	60	85	365	642	542	468	432
2 and less then 3 month	108	122	33	5	23		264	210	165	152
3 month or more	106	124	56	2	23		303	212	144	189
Note: Combined cells in 1944 and 1945 represent the total number of work stoppages for duration categories together. For example, in 1945 there were 365 work stoppages with duration over 1 month. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Compensation Survey, Work Stoppages Program.

Table 2. Annual average duration of work stoppages in calendar days, 1940-1949
Year	1940	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945	1946	1947	1948	1949
Average number of days	21	18	12	5	5.6	10	24	26	22	23
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Compensation Survey, Work Stoppages Program.

As mentioned earlier, the number of work stoppages during the war drastically dropped and was at its lowest point in 1943 when it averaged 5 days.

Location of work stoppages

The Work Stoppages program captures work stoppages in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The number of stoppages in the states of New York and Pennsylvania were far more numerous than in the rest of states during 1940’s. In the state of New York alone, there were over 5,500 work stoppages during the decade. The state of Ohio was not far behind with almost 5,000stoppages during the same timeframe.

Chart 7 data table

Table for chart 7: Number of work stoppages by state, 1940-1949
State	Number of work stoppages
New York	5,530
Pennsylvania	4,890
Ohio	2,670
Illinois	2,430
California	2,160
Michigan	2,120
New Jersey	1,910
Massachusetts	1,140
Indiana	1,100
Missouri	1,030
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Compensation Survey, Work Stoppages Program

Work stoppages by industry

Work stoppages are often a result of contract renegotiation. The frequency of contract negotiations can be dependent on the industry. For example, in the construction industry many contracts are renewed each year while other industries renew contracts less often. The manufacturing industry group, accounted for, by far, the most man-days idle during the 1940’s. There were over 197 million man-days lost due to idleness in this industry, followed by the mining industry, with almost half of man-days idle (over 78 million).

Chart 8 data table

Table for chart 8: Days idle by industry group, 1940-1949
Industry group	Days idle (thousands)
Manufacturing	197,090
Mining	78,646
Transportation and communication and public utilities	29,397
Construction	10,698
Trade	6,508
Services - personal, business, and other	3,209
Agriculture, forestry, fishing	2,521
Finance, insurance, real estate	281
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Compensation Survey, Work Stoppages Program

Work stoppages by unions

The work stoppage program tracks all stoppages regardless of if a union is involved or not. But major unions do appear multiple times throughout the program’s history. The most common unions involved in work stoppages in 1940-1949 were:

United Mine Workers (UMW) – 5,400 work stoppages
Steelworkers Organizing Committee (SWOC) / United Steelworkers of America (USW) – 4,700 work stoppages
United Automobile Workers (UAW) – 2,300 work stoppages

Chart 9 data table

Table for Chart 9: Number of workers involved by selected unions, 1940-1949
Union	Workers involved (thousands)
United Mine Workers (UMW)	5,400
Steelworkers Organizing Committee (SWOC) / United Steelworkers of America (USW)	4,700
United Automobile Workers (UAW)	2,300
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Compensation Survey, Work Stoppages Program

Work Stoppages Resources

For more information on the Work Stoppages program see the Questions and Answers page. Detailed data on work stoppages from 1940 to 1949 are available in the historical bulletins:

Note: There may be inconsistencies of the reporting methods between years.