A number of labour strikes, labour disputes, and other industrial actions occurred in 2018.
Background
A labor strike is a work stoppage, caused by the mass refusal of employees to work, usually in response to employee grievances, such as low pay or poor working conditions. Strikes can also take place to demonstrate solidarity with workers in other workplaces or to pressure governments to change policies.
2018 York University strike, 143-day long strike by contract professors, teaching assistants, and graduate assistants at York University in Canada, breaking the record for longest post-secondary education strike in Canadian history
Emma Sara Hughes of Bangor University and Tony Dundon of the University of Manchester stated that although the total number of strikes in the United Kingdom continued to fall, continuing the last few decades, there were changes to the patterns of strikes in 2018. Notably an increase in the number of strikes at private companies and strikes in companies were workers didn't have official union representation.[23]
The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that there were 20 major work stoppages in the United States in 2018, the highest since 2007, and that 485,000 workers were involved in work stoppages across the country, the highest since 1986.[24] In Aotearoa New Zealand, at least 70,000 workers were involved in strikes in 2018, the highest since the late 1980s.[25]
