‘Striketober’ returns with vengeance

A flurry of strikes by union workers across the U.S. in October 2021 led to the monthlong stretch of labor actions being dubbed “Striketober” that year, but in 2023, strike activity is even higher.

On Oct. 22, 2021, ABC News reported on the Striketober phenomenon that occurred amid a post-pandemic worker revolt from both union and non-union employees across industries during the Great Resignation, when a record number of Americans quit their jobs as they reevaluated their careers and demanded more from employers.

Citing Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations’ tracker, the outlet reported that there had been 185 official union strikes at 255 locations at that point in 2021, with at least 40 of them occurring in October. The BBC reported on Striketober that year, too, saying some 100,000 workers were set to strike or had threatened to do so that month.

The original Striketober included strikes from 10,000 John Deere workers and around 32,000 Kaiser Permanente workers had voted that month to authorize a strike that was eventually averted. Another 60,000 Hollywood film workers were also poised to walk off the job by mid-October 2021.

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But now, barely into the second week of October 2023, this year’s numbers are already markedly higher than those of two years ago.

Cornell’s strike tracker shows that so far this year there have been 304 strikes across 499 locations in the U.S. A greater number of workers have launched strikes, remained on them or threatened to walk off the job during October this year than in 2021, too.

The largest strike of health care workers in the history of the U.S. occurred last week with 75,000 union Kaiser Permanente employees taking to the picket lines in a three-day strike that impacted hospitals across several states. The workers remain without a contract agreement, and the coalition of unions representing them has threatened to strike again if a deal is not reached soon.

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Roughly 25,000 United Auto Workers remain on strike against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis after walking off the job on Sept. 15, and the union has threatened the automakers with a nationwide strike involving all 146,000 members employed by the Big Three if talks continue to drag on without sufficient progress.

Meanwhile, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) union, which represents some 160,000 members, including famous Hollywood actors, remains on strike after first taking to the picket lines in July.

With three weeks yet to go in October, the strike threats aren’t over either.

Members of the Culinary Union, which is Nevada’s largest labor organization and represents Las Vegas hospitality workers, have voted to authorize a strike, which could result in another 40,000 casino employees walking of the job.