Strikes have always been a huge part of American history; it is even likely that you participated in at least one of them throughout your life.

However, general strikes are something a bit different, and there are more risks to such rebellions, which is why you should learn more about them to know whether or not you might join or want to join general strikes at all!

101 on General Strikes

General strikes are protests created by working people in different or in one industry that decide to stop their working process all at the same time in order to hit the economic activity of the country and thus make the government change something that does not satisfy this group of people.

Because of the extreme coordination of time and actions that general strikes require, it might be quite hard to create one that would actually change something. Of course, there were a few general strikes in the history of the USA, but not all of them are actually general strikes in their nature. Now, this term is used more or less for all kinds of rebellions.

One of the biggest strikes took place in Seattle and Oakland in 1919. Both cities were shut down by their workers for multiple days, something that was not seen in US history ever since.

As for your right to strike, it all depends on your place of work:

• Employees working in private companies have a guarantee that they will not lose their working place as long as they follow the federal laws indicating how the strikes could take place and how they can participate in them;
• As for employees in public companies, your right to participate in strikes depends on the rules of your company as well;
• What is more, most companies belong to the unions that dictate your right to protest, so if you do not receive approval from your union to go on a strike, you will have a pretty high chance of losing your job. And the unions themselves do not have the right to create a strike, as it would mean risking losing their legal liability. Unions can only strike against their own employer, not others.

All in all, nobody can actually prohibit you from going on a strike, but you need to consider all of the risks before doing that and decide whether or not you are ready to lose your job position for the strike you want to participate in.