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The largest strike in U.S. history was the Steel Strike of 1959, which lasted 116 days between July and November of 1959. The strike involved half a million workers and members of the United Steelworks of America union due to a dispute over wages and changes to workplace rules.

2022 Railway Unions Dispute

As seen in many other countries around the world this year, the United States is experiencing a revival of the labor movement. Strike action and efforts to unionize various workforces have made headlines across the country, and public support for labor unions is at an all-time high.

The 2022 railroad labor dispute was a dispute between freight railroads and workers in the United States that began in 2019. The companies and unions involved in the dispute were able to reach a tentative agreement in September 2022. The deal grants workers a 24 percent pay increase over five years, and 5,000 dollars in bonuses, but failed to provide workers with paid sick leave. When the deal was put to union members to vote, four of the 12 unions needed to approve the deal instead rejected it, with some pushing for a strike.

Dispute Outcomes

A railway strike of this magnitude was estimated to freeze nearly 30 percent of U.S. cargo by freight and cost the U.S. economy an estimated two billion dollars per day. Given this threat, President Joe Biden invoked powers under the 1926 Railway Labor Act to intervene – allowing Congress to impose the September 2022 agreement on rail companies and union employees. The U.S House of Representatives additionally passed a separate resolution to add seven days of paid sick leave to the deal, but this motion failed to pass in the Senate where it was amended to one day of paid sick leave and subsequently passed. The deal signed by President Biden is estimated to affect around 115,000 rail workers across the country. There is currently no federal legal requirement for paid sick leave in the U.S.