Posted on 02/10/2011 9:22:25 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Last year represented the second-least-active period for strikes and lockouts on record, in a sign of just how troubled the labor market has been, a U.S. government report Tuesday said.
Over the course of 2010, there were only 11 major strikes or lockouts involving 1,000 or more workers, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. The lowest year for work stoppages was 2009. Last year’s work stoppages “idled 45,000 workers for 302,000 lost workdays, a large increase compared to 2009 record lows, with 5 stoppages idling 13,000 workers for 124,000 lost workdays,” the report noted.
The Labor Department report tracks major work stoppages going back to 1947. The agency doesn’t distinguish between employee walkouts or employer-initiated actions. While work stoppages rose last year, they were historically low and can be seen as yet another signal of a highly challenged employment sector. High levels of unemployment resulting from the worst recession in generations have evidently made many workers gun shy in taking major action to secure better employment conditions.
The diminishing pool of organized workers also likely has something to do with what the BLS noted is a long decline in the trend for strikes and lockouts. “From 2001-2010, there were approximately 17 major work stoppages on average per year, compared with 34 per year from 1991-2000, 69 from 1981-1990, and 269 from 1971-1980.”
The government noted that work days lost to major work stoppages over 2001 to 2010 have fallen 90% from 1971-1980 period. Work stoppages were far more common before 1970. For example, there were 470 such events in 1952.
In a report last month, the BLS said union membership in 2010 fell to 11.9% of the U.S. working population, or 14.7 million workers, from 12.3% of the working population the year before.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...
They've never had it so good, relatively speaking.
The only strike or lockout I hear is coming up is the NFL.
A bird in the hand...
Record low strikes or walkouts = record low number of people working to strike or walkout.
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