When should we go on strike?

From #WGAstrong to United pilots to Oakland teachers, thousands of workers have recently walked off the job and onto the picket line to fight for a fair contract. Here’s a quick download on how unions decide to go on strike.

The strike is exciting, but always the last tactic in your series of escalating actions. Build your escalating actions so that a strike won’t be necessary, but sometimes a strike is what it takes to get the goods.

Strikes take a lot of time and effort to prepare for. You have to make sure you have the numbers of workers committed to strike. You have to make sure you have the resources and the press strategy. But it’s important to be having conversations with your co-workers early in your campaign about the potential of striking and when this would be necessary and what this would look like. People can start to internalize that it is a possibility and are ready if and when the time comes.

Before a strike can happen, there has to be a strike authorization vote where members vote whether to strike or not. This is reassurance that if we do go on strike, the union is going to do it together as a collective.

The best way to avoid a strike is to have a credible strike threat so that your management knows it’s a real possibility.