By

Sept. 26, 2019

After 11 days and no deal, United Automobile Workers members are still on strike at General Motors factories across the United States. The strike is the longest walkout at G.M. since 1970, when workers halted assembly lines for 67 days.

For a century, labor unions have used halted production as a means of securing the rights and benefits that they believe their workers are entitled to. Early U.A.W.-backed walkouts led to the unionization of workers at G.M. in 1937 and Ford in 1941, shaping the way factory floors operated and working conditions were established.

With organized labor’s decline in recent decades, auto walkouts have become less frequent. More work is being sent abroad, and foreign-owned car plants in the South have turned back unionization efforts. But the current strike coincides with a rise in assertiveness by unionized and nonunionized workers, from teachers to hotel workers to ride-share drivers.