Bloomberg Law
April 14, 2020, 9:28 AM UTC

ANALYSIS: Covid-19 Has Workers Striking. Where Are the Unions?

Robert Combs
Robert Combs
Legal Analyst

Unions have been uncharacteristically slow to stage traditional, wide-ranging workplace strikes amid the snowballing health and economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. But that lack of formal action appears about to change.

According to Bloomberg Law’s database of work stoppages, unionized U.S. workplaces saw 23 strikes in first quarter 2020, idling just 16,829 workers. These are the lowest first-quarter totals in four years.

Labor leadership was certainly busy in the early weeks of the outbreak, but its role mostly revolved around supporting and promoting workplace protests that have sprung up organically by employees required to remain on ...

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