How strikes shaped labor law in the U.S. and Oregon.

From industrial conflict to a regulated right

1. Late 1800s: national industrial strikesRail, mining and manufacturing disputes made the imbalance between concentrated capital and individual workers visible. Some ended in injunctions, troops, deaths and blacklisting. They also helped make labor law a national political question.
2. 1935: the National Labor Relations ActThe National Labor Relations Act created a federal framework for many private sector workers to organize and bargain collectively. It excluded public workers, leaving states to develop separate systems.
3. 1936–1937: Flint sit-down strikeWorkers occupied General Motors plants, and the settlement brought recognition of the United Auto Workers. The action became a prominent example of workers using control over production to force recognition. [2]
4. 1968: Memphis sanitation strikeBlack sanitation workers struck over safety, pay and union recognition. The campaign connected labor rights and civil rights and drew Martin Luther King Jr. to Memphis.
5. 1973: Oregon enacts PECBAAfter public sector job actions and debate over how to resolve labor disputes, Oregon adopted the Public Employee Collective Bargaining Act (PECBA). The Oregon Encyclopedia reports that lawmakers concluded a legal, structured right to strike was preferable to unpredictable illegal walkouts. [3]
6. 1995: Oregon changes the final bargaining stepsThe Legislature replaced mandatory fact-finding with today’s impasse, public final offers and cooling-off structure, while retaining voluntary fact-finding. [4]
7. 2025–2026: Oregon adds limited unemployment insurance for strikersSenate Bill 916 created limited unemployment eligibility for striking workers beginning in 2026, adding financial support while retaining unpaid weeks and weekly eligibility rules. [5]

What history does—and does not—prove

History shows that workers have used strikes to win recognition, wages, hours, safety rules and a voice at work. It also shows losses, divisions and unintended harm. A famous past victory does not prove that a present strike will succeed; a past defeat does not prove that withholding labor never works.

The useful lesson is narrower: a strike’s effect depends on timing, organization, public understanding, management’s alternatives, the clarity of demands and workers’ ability to sustain the action. Oregon’s PECBA framework tries to place that pressure only after negotiation, mediation and a cooling-off period.