Are Labor Strikes Staging a Comeback?

Work Stoppages Have Declined Steeply Since the ’70s, But This Year’s Mass Teacher Walkouts May Signal Renewed Militancy 

In states across the nation, public school teachers are going out on strike. What does that tell us about the future of labor in America?

On February 22, 2018, some 20,000 West Virginia public school teachers and staff walked off their jobs, closing schools in all 55 counties in the state. Thousands of teachers, school employees, and supporters flooded the state capitol in Charleston, protesting low salaries and rising health insurance costs.

Scattered walkouts had begun in January, especially in the rural southern coalfield counties, some of the state’s poorest areas. The …