ANALYSIS: Large Union Strikes Fuel Picket-Line Population Surge

As United Auto Workers leaders consider expanding the union’s strikes against the Big 3 automakers, it’s sobering to remember that only about one-fourth of UAW-represented workers at Ford, GM, and Stellantis have actually walked out so far. If all 146,000 workers were to strike, the impact would be enormous.

But here’s the thing about labor unrest in 2023: Unions are already leading historically huge numbers of workers to the picket lines as it is.

Strikes have idled more than 467,000 unionized workers so far this year, according to an analysis of Bloomberg Law’s database of work stoppages. That year-to-date ...