In the summer of 2020, we decided to count every strike in the United States. The Labor Action Tracker (LAT), currently the only comprehensive strike database in the country, was conceived amid the upsurge of activism during the most intense phase of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. At the time, many businesses shut down, and people walked out of work to protest racism and police violence. Most prominent, the National Basketball Association’s Milwaukee Bucks players refusal to take the court after the police shooting of Jacob Blake inspired a series of strike actions by athletes in various sports. In targeting systems of racism and broader social oppression at the workplace, these activists were reviving the strike as a political tool. But given the inadequacy of official data sources, we had no way of precisely assessing how these strikes fit in with historical trends.

Today is the fifth anniversary of the LAT’s launch, and we now have the data to better analyze the actual dynamics of recent strike activity. When we look back over the past five years, what trends emerge, and what are the lessons for the labor movement and progressive social movements more broadly? At a moment of growing authoritarianism, violent deportations, ever worsening inequality, but also growing resistance, this is a pivotal moment to reassess the power of workers.