Voting to strike
Unions say strikes happen only if the members vote to strike.
The International Association of Machinists says:
"The IAM cannot force members to strike - ever. The IAM constitution requires a two-thirds majority of the voting membership that will actually be working under the contract to authorize a strike..."
Here's how strike votes REALLY happen:
First, the Machinists Union tells you about the new contract they have bargained with management.
Then they give you this ballot:
What if you and the other members don't like the proposed new contract and vote to reject it?
The Machinists Union would give you a second ballot:
What if you and the other members don't want to go on strike? (since it could mean no pay, no benefits and possibly being permanently replaced)
Read the fine print - if less than 2/3 of the members who actually vote say "No" to a strike . . .
The contract is automatically accepted (even if all of the members voted against it).
Other unions give you the same choice:
Accept the contract (whether you like it or not)
or
Agree to strike.
"None of the above" is not an option
At New Process Steel, members of the Machinists Union objected to this type of "voting" and filed an "unfair labor practice" charge with the National Labor Relations Board against the union.
The NLRB threw out the charge because this voting process is consistent with the IAM's Constitution -- and the NLRB does not make judgments about whether union constitutions are fair to the members.
Unions sometimes FORCE members to go on strike.
If members don't go out, they hear about it from the union.
One recent example is the strike called by the Steelworkers Union
at oil refineries across the country in 2015:
THE BOTTOM LINE:
When a union says "strikes happen only 2% of the time," what they might REALLY be saying is,
"98% of the time our members accept contracts they don't like because they don't want to go on strike."