Johnnie Kallas, Ph.D. candidate at the ILR School at Cornell University, joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the 2022 Annual Labor Action Tracker. The Tracker began in 2021 to fill a significant data gap left by the restrictions of the Bureau of Labor Statistics requirements. The tracker is completed by a team of research assistants that collect data using Google, social media and connections within the labor movement.
Kallas discussed the leading industry in the number of strikes, with the Accommodation and Food industry leading the way in total strikes in 2022. Kallas mentioned that most of these strikes were led by the Starbucks Workers United strikes. While they didn’t have many workers at each Starbucks, the Annual Labor Tracker counted each strike.
Meanwhile, Kallas said the industry with the most workers involved in strikes was the educational services industry, which had multiple significant strikes last year. The strikes of organizations like the University of California teachers strike led the way with the total number of workers striking. This major strike, along with the multiple other school district strikes across America, helped increase the number of workers on strike in the educational sector.
Kallas also shared some of the more surprising stats from the annual tracker. The first surprise came from learning that almost one-third of all strikes occurred with non-union workers. The other major surprise came from the South, where a similar number of strikes took place as the Northeast and Midwest regions, according to the data Kallas and his team collected.
Listen to the entire episode to learn more.