Legal Definitions - Strikers

In labor law, strikers are employees who collectively stop working as a form of protest or to demand specific changes from their employer. The law recognizes two main categories of strikers, each with different rights regarding their employment status and their ability to return to their jobs after a strike.

The two main categories are:

• Economic Strikers
• Unfair Labor Practice Strikers

Economic Strikers

Economic strikers are employees who go on strike to achieve better economic terms or working conditions from their employer. This can include demands for higher wages, improved benefits, shorter working hours, or safer workplaces.

• Employment Status: While on strike, economic strikers retain their status as employees. Their employer cannot legally fire them for participating in the strike.
• Replacement Rights: However, an employer *can* hire permanent replacements for economic strikers. If the employer has hired legitimate permanent replacements by the time the strike ends and the strikers unconditionally offer to return to work, the employer is not obligated to immediately reinstate the original strikers if their positions are filled.
• Recall Rights: If an economic striker has not found another job that is substantially similar to their previous one, they are entitled to be recalled to their former position, or any equivalent position for which they are qualified, as soon as an opening becomes available. This right applies once they have made an unconditional request to return to work.

Unfair Labor Practice Strikers

Unfair labor practice strikers are employees who strike specifically to protest an action by their employer that violates labor law (an "unfair labor practice"). Examples of unfair labor practices include illegally firing union organizers, refusing to bargain in good faith, or interfering with employees' right to form a union.

• Employment Status: These strikers also retain their employee status, and their employer cannot legally fire them for striking.
• Replacement Rights: Crucially, an employer *cannot* permanently replace unfair labor practice strikers.
• Reinstatement Rights: Once the strike concludes, unfair labor practice strikers are generally entitled to return to their original jobs, even if it means displacing any temporary workers hired during the strike. This right applies unless they engaged in serious misconduct during the strike, such as violence or an unauthorized "wildcat" strike.

If an employer unlawfully denies reinstatement to either type of striker who has unconditionally requested to return to work, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) may order the employer to provide backpay to the strikers for the period they were wrongfully kept out of their jobs. In some cases, an economic strike can be converted into an unfair labor practice strike if the employer commits an unfair labor practice during the strike.

Examples

• Example 1: Economic Strikers - Wage Dispute

  Employees at "Apex Manufacturing" go on strike, demanding a 15% pay raise and improved retirement benefits. The company, facing production deadlines, hires new workers to permanently fill the positions of the striking employees.

  How it illustrates the term: This demonstrates economic strikers. Their strike is aimed at securing economic concessions (higher wages, better benefits). Because they are economic strikers, Apex Manufacturing has the legal right to hire permanent replacements. When the strike concludes and the original strikers unconditionally offer to return, they are not guaranteed immediate reinstatement if their positions are legitimately filled by these new permanent employees. Instead, they would typically be placed on a preferential hiring list for future job openings.

• Example 2: Unfair Labor Practice Strikers - Union Busting

  Workers at "Global Tech Solutions" decide to strike after the company illegally fires several employees who were actively organizing a union. The company attempts to continue operations by bringing in temporary contract workers.

  How it illustrates the term: This situation involves unfair labor practice strikers. Their protest is directly against Global Tech Solutions' illegal action of firing union organizers, which is an unfair labor practice. In this case, the company cannot permanently replace these strikers. Once the strike ends and the strikers unconditionally offer to return to work (assuming no serious misconduct), they are entitled to get their original jobs back, even if it means the temporary contract workers must be let go.

• Example 3: Economic Strikers with Subsequent Unfair Labor Practice

  Employees at "City Transit Authority" initiate a strike primarily to negotiate for better health insurance plans (an economic demand). During the strike, the Transit Authority management sends threatening letters to individual strikers, stating they will be permanently blacklisted from all future employment in the city if they don't return to work immediately. This threat is an illegal interference with their right to strike.

  How it illustrates the term: Initially, these were economic strikers. However, the Transit Authority's threatening letters constitute an unfair labor practice. This employer misconduct can convert the strike into an unfair labor practice strike. As a result, the strikers' rights change: they would then be entitled to immediate reinstatement to their original positions once the strike ends, and the Transit Authority would not be able to permanently replace them, despite the strike's initial economic motivation.