An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it's official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site.

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Bureau of Labor Statistics > Work Stoppages > Publications > Factsheets

Work Stoppages: 1960-1969

While the BLS has collected work stoppage data in some capacity since 1947, the program today looks quite different to that of the ‘60’s. Starting in 1982, the program started cataloging only major work stoppages-those involving more than 1,000 workers and lasting more than one work shift. However, before 1982, the program listed every stoppage of more than 6 workers and a full work shift, including data broken down by size, duration, industry, and geographic location.

Looking at the annual listing of major work stoppages through all the programs years, the 1960s saw much higher activity than we see today. However, in the full context of U.S. labor history, the early ‘60’s marked the start of the decline in organized labor activity with total major stoppages steadily falling following the mid-1950s. In fact, the decade began by marking the lowest post-WWII stoppage activity, a record to be broken by 1961 and then again in 1963.

Context is key when looking at our economic history. In the early 1960s, the U.S. was still enjoying the post-war economic boom seeing record breaking stock market values, increased corporate relocation and acquisition, and technological progress. The first four years were characterized by post-war lows in the number of stoppages, with many involving straightforward contract negotiations.

However, in 1964 and continuing through the rest of the decade, the pace of stoppages picked up once again. In 1964, a 45-day walkout against General Motors involved over 250,000 workers at its peak. This stoppage was followed by the Gulf Coast Longshoremen’s dispute, which would last over 3 months and was declared an emergency; enacting the national emergency provisions of the Taft-Hartly Act. In 1966 and 1967, the national emergency provisions were enacted again following 4 major stoppages in defense production involving over 10,000 workers each. In 1967, one of the largest stoppages in U.S. history occurred, with 459,000 railroad workers idled resulting in presidential action after just two days. This increase in stoppages during the back half of the decade was attributed to a rise in contract negotiations brought about by economic concerns. In 1965, 59.1 percent of stoppages were attributed to economic issues, but that rate rose to 75.1 percent by 1968. BLS writers at the time believed it was due to rising inflation but noted that escalator clauses were not a significant cause of concern, pointing to other economic concerns left undescribed.

Number of work stoppages

The upward trend in stoppages throughout the 1960s is visible below in both stoppages beginning and in effect (chart 1). “Beginning in a year” refers to stoppages that started during the specified year, while “In effect in a year” refers to any stoppage active during the specified year, including those carrying over from the previous year(s). In the below chart of stoppages from 1960-1969, in 1960 the 5,488 in-effect stoppages include the 3,333 beginning in 1960 and 2,155 from 1959 and before.

Number of workers involved

As previously mentioned, today’s Work Stoppages program only counts major stoppages of 1,000 or more workers. This definition accounts for much of the major difference in stoppage numbers between now and pre-1982 numbers as the vast majority of stoppages fall into the lowest worker count categories. Chart 2 below breaks down the stoppages by workers involved with below 1,000, 1,000-9,999, and 10,000 or more workers. For example, in 1961, there were 3,367 stoppages beginning in the year, with 3,172 involving less than 1,000 workers, 181 involving between 1,000 and 9,999 workers, and 14 involving 10,000 or more.

Duration of stoppages

Another core difference between the current work stoppages and pre-1982 data is that duration is currently tracked only for workdays. In historical data, such as in the ‘60s, the duration counted calendar days. Practically, this difference means that a stoppage lasting three months would be counted as 90 days or more in the ‘60s but only counted for roughly 60 days today. The chart below breaks down stoppage duration in 1960-1969.

The average duration of work stoppages in the 1960’s stayed remarkably consistent throughout the decade, even as the later years saw a dramatic increase in stoppage activity. The highest average duration during the ‘60s was in 1965, when around one out of every four workers involved in stoppages was out for at least 30 days. The 938 stoppages of 30 or more days were the highest number of this duration seen since 1953, even though the ‘50s saw a greater number of stoppages of any duration on average.

Table 1. Annual average duration of work stoppages in days, 1960-1969
Year	1960	1961	1962	1963	1964	1965	1966	1967	1968	1969
Average number of days	23.4	23.7	24.6	23	22.9	25	22.2	22.8	24.5	22.5

Location of work stoppages

Historical work stoppages data are available from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. During the 1960’s, New York led the country in total stoppages, followed closely by Pennsylvania and Ohio. New York only dropped below 400 stoppages once and finished the decade with 521 in 1969. Pennsylvania only led in number of stoppages in 1965 with 404, but recorded 655 stoppages in 1969, the second highest year in the decade with only Ohio having more that same year. Chart 4 below lists the top 10 states by number of stoppages throughout the 1960’s.

New York not only led the country in the number of stoppages but the total number of idle days as well. Days of idleness refers to each day of work lost by each worker participating in a stoppage. Days idle can be calculated by taking the number of workers involved in a stoppage and multiplying it by the duration. Days idle allows stoppages to be compared by total time lost. While New York and Ohio maintain first and third overall seen above, Michigan jumps to second highest while only having the sixth highest number of stoppages. This ranking is likely due to 1968, when Michigan recorded an extraordinarily high of roughly 7.8 million days idle: by far the highest number on record in the ‘60s.

Work stoppages by industry

Work stoppages in the 1960’s were dominated by the manufacturing industry, such as the 250,000+ auto worker stoppage mentioned at the beginning of this piece. Contract construction reached the highest level of activity recorded at the time in 1969 with 8 major construction stoppages. Transportation also had a record year in 1968 with 6 major stoppages, including a national trucking stoppage involving around 193,000 workers. Chart 6 below shows the total days idle in thousands of days for the decade.

Work Stoppages Resources

For more information on the Work Stoppages program see the Questions and Answers page. Detailed data on work stoppages from 1960 to 1969 are available in these historical bulletins: