Work environments and workers’ grievances: Accounting for variation in wildcat strikes in the US coal mining industry, 1970–1977

Abstract

This article examines the role of work environments and workers’ grievances as factors generating wildcat strikes in the US coal mining industry from 1970 to 1977, a period of intense worker–management conflict. Drawing on historical and empirical evidence, it argues that the classical wage-bargaining model of authorized strike activity fails to account for variation in the incidence of wildcat strikes in general, and those in the coal mines in particular. The analysis employs a unique data set on wildcat strikes in the coal industry during the period. This article brings the analysis of the causes of wildcat strikes into closer dialogue with social and labor movement theory.