19 of the Biggest American Labor Strikes in 2021

More than 400 workers walked off the job at the Constellium aluminum plant in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, at the very end of 2020. The workers called the strike after negotiations between the United Steelworkers Union and the French-owned company broke down. The workers struck over unfair labor practices and proposed health care cuts. The strike ended when the union ratified a five-year contract with the company.

Workers at the Hunts Point Produce Market in the Bronx, the nation’s biggest wholesale produce market, struck for seven days before winning wage increases ending a walkout in January. It was the first strike at the famed market since 1986. The workers are represented by Teamsters Local 202.

A five-month strike at the Marathon Petroleum refinery in St. Paul Park ended in July 2021. Represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 120, 200 workers approved a six-year contract offer from the company.

Hospital workers in Bend, Oregon, struck against the St. Charles Health System in March for 11 days. They returned to work in mid-March, when the 156 staffers signed a contract that raised union wages by double-digit percentage points. The workers are represented by an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers.

Nurses at Saint Vincent Hospital went on strike claiming there were not enough of them to keep patients safe. An agreement to end the strike was reached in December, with the hospital saying it would restore striking nurses to their previous positions, but the ratification vote, officially ending the labor action, didn’t come until early 2022.

The Columbia University strike involved graduate student workers at Columbia University. It began in March of last year, ending in May. However, strike activity resumed on Nov. 3, ending only at the end of the first week in January of this year when a tentative agreement with the university was reached. The union won concessions on issues such as increased healthcare and childcare coverage and higher pay.

Allegheny Technologies and the United Steelworkers reached a tentative agreement for a labor contract in July, ending a three-month strike of 1,300 steelworkers. The agreement preserved the United Steelworkers’ premium-free health insurance.

New York University’s 2,200 graduate student workers went on strike starting April 26 demanding higher hourly wages, better healthcare coverage, and fewer police on campus. Three weeks later, the Graduate Student Organizing Committee of the United Auto Workers Union announced it had reached a tentative agreement with NYU’s administration.

About 1,100 workers at coal-mining facilities in Alabama went on strike in April seeking higher wages, improved schedules, and more time off. Some strikers traveled to New York to protest the hedge funds that own Warrior Met. Some of the strikers were arrested outside the headquarters of BlackRock, Warrior Met’s largest shareholder.

Workers at a Volvo heavy truck plant in Virginia struck in mid-April. A tentative agreement was reached by the end of the month, but union members rejected its terms as well as the terms of a follow-up proposal. The strike resumed in June. A third agreement was again rejected in early July before two of the three main portions of the contract were finally approved, and the strikers returned to work. The United Auto Worker union said the agreement eliminates a lower wage level and provides protections around shift scheduling.

The Oregon Tech-American Association of University Professors union, formed in 2018 and recognized by the school a year later, had been unable to negotiate a contract with the university by spring of 2021, so a strike was called. After eight days, the faculty settled with the administration. The accord raised wages and eased workloads. The pact also included a merit-based component to salary hikes, which the union had opposed.

Nine hundred nurses with Cook County Health staged a one-day job action to protest staffing issues. The strike affected three Chicago hospitals. The day after the strike, another group of Chicago area nurses and other health care workers went on an 18-day strike, eventually gaining raises, hazard pay, and other concessions.

Hundreds of workers belonging to Local 218 of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union went on strike against Frito-Lay in Kansas. The strike ended with a contract providing workers with a guaranteed day off each work week, and eliminating what are known as “suiсide shifts” in which laborers work eight-hour days plus four hours of overtime before returning for their next shift. The accord also included 4% wage increases to employees in all job classes over the two-year contract.

A strike by Nabisco employees in five states ended after union members approved a four-year contract with Mondelez International, Nabisco’s parent company. Workers got hourly wage increases and the company agreed to raise the company match to 401(k) contributions. The employees are members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union.

After a six-week strike, about 420 Heaven Hill workers voted to stop the strike, agreeing to a five-year contract with the Kentucky distillery. The agreement called for more employer contributions to healthcare and protected overtime pay. The workers are members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union

Seattle-area carpenters voted 54% to 46% for a new contract following a nearly three-week strike that slowed construction work across the region. The deal was the fifth tentative agreement brought for a vote.The dispute also revealed internal divisions among the union’s 12,000 members. The agreement included wage increases that disappointed some members.

A strike involving about 2,000 employees at Mercy Hospital in Buffalo, who are members of the Communication Workers of America Union, ended when the hospital agreed to “reallocate staffing assets.”

A nearly two-month-long strike ended in December when 1,400 Kellogg’s cereal-plant workers agreed to a contract that provided 3% raises and modified the company’s two-tier wage structure. The five-year deal with the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union also included cost-of- living adjustments.

About 10,000 workers at John Deere plants around the country ended a five-week strike with an accord including a 10% pay raise, signing bonuses, and other wage inducements. It also provided for a cost-of-living adjustment to shield workers from increases in consumer prices. Workers are represented by the United Auto Workers union.