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Work Stoppages
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Work Stoppages: 2010-2019
The Work Stoppages Program publishes monthly and annual data on major work stoppages in the United States. Major work stoppages are defined as any stoppage that involves 1,000 or more workers and lasts for at least one full work shift.
Number of work stoppages
The Work Stoppages Program tracks the number of stoppages that occur each month and year using two different metrics. The first metric is a count of the number of work stoppages that began in the given month or year. This tracks how many new stoppages began within the month or year being considered. The other metric used for the number of stoppages is the number in effect. This is a count of any stoppage observed in a particular month or year. 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 2010–2019.
| Year | Beginning | In effect |
|---|---|---|
|
2010 |
11 | 11 |
|
2011 |
19 | 19 |
|
2012 |
19 | 21 |
|
2013 |
15 | 15 |
|
2014 |
11 | 11 |
|
2015 |
12 | 13 |
|
2016 |
15 | 16 |
|
2017 |
7 | 7 |
|
2018 |
20 | 21 |
|
2019 |
25 | 27 |
Ownership breakdown
One of the metrics published by the work stoppages program is a cumulative “days idle” for each work stoppage. This metric represents the number of workers involved in a stoppage multiplied by the number of workdays a stoppage lasted. The result is a total number of workdays that were missed as a result of the work stoppage. In the following chart, the 2010-2019 days idle from work stoppages have been broken down by ownership group to show what percentage of days idle was from stoppages in the private industry, state government, and local government ownership groups.
| Ownership group | Percent of total | Days idle |
|---|---|---|
|
Private industry |
72.4% | 9,396,000 |
|
State government |
16.7% | 2,168,600 |
|
Local government |
10.9% | 1,418,300 |
Industry sector breakdown
The Work Stoppages Program specifies the industry sector for each published work stoppage in the database. In terms of the number of work stoppages that began between 2010-2019, educational services, as well as healthcare and social assistance, saw far more activity than other sectors in this timeframe. Although the healthcare and social assistance sector saw more work stoppages beginning than educational services, educational services included many large stoppages which make it particularly interesting to consider in this timeframe. The chart below shows the number of work stoppages beginning between 2010-2019 broken down by industry group.
| Industry | Number of stoppages beginning |
|---|---|
|
Accommodation and food services |
5 |
|
Administrative and waste services |
2 |
|
Arts, entertainment, and recreation |
1 |
|
Construction |
12 |
|
Education services |
38 |
|
Healthcare and social assistance |
45 |
|
Information |
11 |
|
Manufacturing |
15 |
|
Mining |
2 |
|
Public administration |
9 |
|
Retail trade |
3 |
|
Transportation and warehousing |
8 |
|
Utilities |
3 |
Educational services sector stoppages
From 2010-2019, there were a number of large work stoppages within the educational services industry in the U.S. These stoppages were primarily concentrated in the years of 2018 and 2019, but there were others that occurred outside of that range as well. Over the 2010-2019 time span, 38 work stoppages took place within the educational services sector, including the top 4 stoppages in terms of number of workers involved. The following chart showcases the largest work stoppages within the educational services sector, ordered by number of workers.
| Organizations involved | Number of workers |
|---|---|
|
North Carolina State Legislature (2018) |
123,000 |
|
North Carolina State Legislature (2019) |
92,700 |
|
Arizona State Legislature (2018) |
81,000 |
|
Colorado State Legislature (2018) |
63,000 |
|
Oklahoma State Legislature (2018) |
45,000 |
|
West Virginia Legislature (2019) |
36,400 |
|
West Virginia Legislature (2018) |
35,000 |
|
Los Angeles Unified School District (2019) |
33,000 |
|
Chicago Public Schools (2019) |
32,000 |
|
Chicago Public Schools (2016) |
27,000 |
|
Chicago Public Schools (2012) |
26,500 |
|
Kentucky State Legislature (2018) |
26,000 |
|
Kentucky State Legislature (2019) |
22,900 |
|
Oregon State Legislature (2019) |
20,400 |
|
South Carolina State Legislature (2019) |
18,900 |
|
Washington State Legislature (2015) |
16,900 |
|
New York City Public Schools (2013) |
8,000 |
|
Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (2016) |
5,100 |
|
Seattle School District (2015) |
5,000 |
|
Denver Public Schools (2019) |
3,900 |
|
Jersey City School District (2018) |
3,800 |
|
Oakland Unified School District (2018) |
2,500 |
|
Tacoma School District (2018) |
2,400 |
|
Harvard University (2019) |
2,400 |
|
Oakland Unified School District (2019) |
2,300 |
|
University of California (2017) |
2,200 |
|
City of Tacoma (2011) |
1,900 |
|
Rockford School District 205 (2012) |
1,900 |
|
Sacramento City Unified School District (2019) |
1,900 |
|
Capistrano Unified School District (2018) |
1,800 |
|
Kennewick School District (2019) |
1,800 |
|
Detroit Public Schools (2016) |
1,500 |
|
University of Illinois at Chicago (2019) |
1,400 |
|
Community Unit School District 300 (2012) |
1,300 |
|
Waukegan School District 60 (2014) |
1,200 |
|
North Penn School District (2010) |
1,100 |
|
University of Illinois at Chicago (2014) |
1,100 |
|
Pasco School District (2015) |
1,100 |
The number of work stoppages beginning in the educational services sector was higher in 2018-2019 than what was typically seen in the past. From 2000-2009, educational services sector stoppages accounted for 12.4% of all stoppages beginning in the timeframe, compared to the 2010-2019 timeframe where educational services stoppages accounted for 24.7%, almost twice as much. Looking specifically at the two years where educational services work stoppages spiked, 46.7% of all stoppages beginning in those years were in the educational services sector. From 1993-2019, there was an average of 3.4 educational services sector work stoppages that began each year. Comparing this to the number of stoppages in the educational services sector in 2018 and 2019, it is shown that the number of stoppages in this sector was well above average. The chart below shows how many work stoppages began in the educational services sector each year from 1993-2019.
| Year | Number of work stoppages beginning in year |
|---|---|
|
1993 |
5 |
|
1994 |
5 |
|
1995 |
3 |
|
1996 |
8 |
|
1997 |
0 |
|
1998 |
3 |
|
1999 |
5 |
|
2000 |
4 |
|
2001 |
3 |
|
2002 |
2 |
|
2003 |
2 |
|
2004 |
0 |
|
2005 |
3 |
|
2006 |
2 |
|
2007 |
4 |
|
2008 |
3 |
|
2009 |
2 |
|
2010 |
3 |
|
2011 |
1 |
|
2012 |
3 |
|
2013 |
1 |
|
2014 |
2 |
|
2015 |
3 |
|
2016 |
3 |
|
2017 |
1 |
|
2018 |
8 |
|
2019 |
13 |
Longest work stoppages
Among the work stoppages that began between 2010 and 2019, 94 lasted 5 days or less. On the other end of the spectrum, the longest stoppage lasted more than five years. A work stoppage involving Charter Communications Inc. and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) began on March 28th of 2017 and lasted until April 18th of 2022. The chart below displays the top five longest work stoppages that began between 2010 and 2019.
| Employer | Union | Number of workdays |
|---|---|---|
|
Charter Communications Inc. (2017-2022) |
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers | 1,269 |
|
American Crystal Sugar Company (2011-2012) |
Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers International Union | 342 |
|
Asarco (2019-2020) |
United Steelworkers | 181 |
|
National Grid (2018-2019) |
United Steelworkers | 131 |
|
Allegheny Technologies Incorporated (2015-2016) |
United Steelworkers | 128 |
Work Stoppages Resources
For more information on the Work Stoppages program see the Questions and Answers page. To retrieve Work stoppages data, see the WSP database, as well as the Detailed Monthly Tables.