MIKE ELK, mike.elk@gmail.com,
Elk is a labor reporter and founder of PayDayReport.com.
His work was just featured in the in-depth piece “‘It’s a walkout!’ — Inside the fast-food workers’ season of rebellion” in the Washington Post: “The Bureau of Labor Statistics only tracks major stoppages that involve more than 1,000 workers. But Mike Elk, a labor reporter and founder of PayDayReport.com, has compiled a database of 1,600 walkouts since March 2020 that included as many as 100,000 workers.”
Elk highlighted the scope of labor actions in just one town: “One thousand hospital workers are striking at Cabell Huntington Hospital in West Virginia. Nearly 500 steelworkers in Huntington have been on strike at Special Metals already for four weeks.
“With only 50,000 people living in Huntington, West Virginia, having nearly 1,500 workers out on strike is sure to have a huge impact.
“This could be a landmark strike movement in this small West Virginia town that could mobilize more support nationwide for the growing strike movement.
“More than a year and a half ago, Payday was the first outlet to identify a massive strike wave, beginning when we launched our Payday Report Strike Tracker in March of 2020.
“Since then, we have recorded more than 1,600 strikes and walkouts.
“Some commentators suddenly started dubbing October #Striketober because of strikes at John Deere, Kellogg, and the retail workers. …
“These commentators failed to pick up on the strike wave because the walkouts were fundamentally different from walkouts in the past. Instead of calling upon unions and going on traditional strikes, many non-union workers organized on social media and simply walked out.”