Strikes

Perhaps the most highly publicized and dramatic manifestation of labor relations is the strike. However, despite the hold that strikes have on the public’s imagination, the vast majority of negotiations conclude successfully without strikes. In a strike, employees withhold their labor, refusing to resume work until their employer agrees to more favorable terms and conditions of employment or refrains from engaging in ULPs.
Strikers are not quitting their jobs, but rather attempting to place pressure on their employers to act differently. Strikes and the threat of strikes play a vital role in negotiations. Because employees can credibly threaten to impose unwanted costs on employers through the disruption of production, employers have a strong incentive to bargain seriously, compromise, and attempt to reach agreement. Strikes also impose costs and pose potential dangers for employees and their unions; there is no guarantee that strikes will succeed. Thus, the strike option gives both management and labor good reason to bargain seriously.
Strikes and associated activities, such as picketing, are concerted activity. As such, strikers are generally protected by the NLRA and private employers must not terminate employees for engaging in lawful strikes. Although the right to strike is protected under the NLRA (and the RLA), federal government employees do not have the right to strike. Many state and local government employees are also prohibited from striking.
Strikers engaging in lawful strikes cannot be terminated, but they can be “replaced.” Economic strikes are undertaken to pressure employers to meet employee negotiation demands; the issues in dispute need not be money issues. Unfair labor practice strikes are undertaken in response to employer ULPs, like refusal to bargain in good faith, for the purpose of pressuring employers to comply with the law.