Strike action, often simply called a strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to perform work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution when mass labour became important in factories and mines. In most countries, they were quickly made illegal, as factory owners had far more political power than workers. Most western countries partially legalized striking in the late 19th or early 20th centuries. Strikes are sometimes used to put pressure on governments to change policies.
The strike tactic has a very long history. Towards the end of the 20th dynasty, under Pharaoh Ramses III in ancient Egypt in the 12th century BC, the workers of the royal necropolis organized the first known strike or workers' uprising in history. The event was reported in detail on a papyrus at the time, which has been preserved, and is currently located in Turin. The use of the word "strike" in this sense first appeared in 1768, when sailors, in support of demonstrations in London, "struck" or removed the topgallant sails of merchant ships at port, thus crippling the ships.
The Mexican Constitution was the first, all over the world, that constitutionally guaranteed the right to strike, in 1917.
Biggest strike in world history
The Bombay Textile Strike of 1982-3, directly involving a quarter of a million workers (over a million including their dependents), lasted a year and a half and was in numbers and duration together the greatest industrial cataclysm of its kind anywhere in the world.
The importance of this textile strike is its mention inthe Guinness Book of World Records as the biggest strike inworld history
Some of the strikes....
Female tailors on strike. New York City, February, 1910
Teamsters, wielding pipes, clash with Armed police in the streets of Minneapolis during a 1934 strike
A strike leader addressing strikers in Gary Indiana in 1919
Scab driver and cart being stoned during sanitation worker strike. New York City, 1911
Films based on Strikes
* Final Offer (film) - A look at the 1984 contract negotiations between General Motors and its union.
* Harlan Country, USA, Director: Barbara Kopple, USA 1976–A documentary film about a very long and bitter strike of coal miners in Kentucky
* American Dream, Director: Barbara Kopple, USA 1990 – A documentary film about the unsuccessful 1985-1986 meat packer's strike against Hormel Foods in Austin, Minnesota .
* Harlan Country, USA, Director: Barbara Kopple, USA 1976–A documentary film about a very long and bitter strike of coal miners in Kentucky
* American Dream, Director: Barbara Kopple, USA 1990 – A documentary film about the unsuccessful 1985-1986 meat packer's strike against Hormel Foods in Austin, Minnesota .
