Our own Phil Wilson recently commented upon leadership’s role in preventing strikes and maintaining workplace stability amid rising labor tensions. This practice reinforces the need for employers to keep lines of communication open with workers as an ongoing practice.
Beyond individual workplaces, however, is it worth losing sleep over the recent chatter of a general strike? Not yet, but nowadays, one doesn’t have to look far on social media to witness discussions about a potential mass walkout for political and economic reasons related to Trump’s new labor policies and restrictions. A general strike hasn’t happened in the U.S. since 1946 in Oakland, CA, but these events are more common in Europe, where a general strike recently took place in Morocco, and three trade unions came together this week in Belgium to disrupt several industries.
Could such an event happen in the U.S. again?
No, and yes. The current grassroots effort for such a strike has been spread by literally anonymous groups pointing at GeneralStrikeUS.com. This website aims to gather over 10 million workers for a cross-industry walkout. This website is of ambiguous origins and does not claim affiliation with any union, although it claims to be tied to the Democracy At Work non-profit. The site has also gathered less than 5% of desired pledges.
At present, this effort doesn’t seem to qualify as loosely organized, even while expressing the intent of crippling businesses for a day, a week, or more.
So, the above movement is unlikely to yield a general strike under current conditions, but never say never, considering that this year has already proven astoundingly unpredictable for labor matters. Still, unions remain the more probable source of labor unrest, and Big Labor has the funding to make a general strike happen, someday.
The United Auto Workers’ plan: Such an event has outwardly been in the planning stages by the UAW since the 2023 Big Three contract renewals. Soon after, union President Shawn Fain declared his intent to threaten a general strike for May Day 2028, which is when the Big Three contracts expire again. Fain called for other union to align contract expirations with that date to set the stage for a general strike. Yet even Fain realizes, as he wrote in an op-ed, that “a general strike isn’t going to happen on a whim. It’s not going to happen over social media. A successful general strike will take time, mass coordination, and a lot of work.”
Naturally, Fain will use this threat as a bargaining chip. His planning has already stirred up support from several other unions, including the American Federation of Teachers, United Electrical Workers, and the Association of Flight Attendants–CWA, which have aligned contract end dates for 2028, too. As if that wasn’t enough, an SEIU local in Minnesota has been practicing combining smaller-scale strikes, such as for janitors and security personnel, also while coordinating for a potential May Day 2028 strike.
The possibility is on the calendar, and keeping ears and eyes open is advised. A general strike would do harm to workers and companies alike, and it’s never too early to prepare for the chance that it happens.
