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Let's say your workplace does not allow unions. Unions afford workers, as a collective, to decide if and when to strike against an employer to seek redress, to demand more compensation, to insist on improved humane working conditions, to push employers to provide better benefits, and more.
Ironically, then, workers sometimes have to go on strike to even force the employer to allow a worker vote on whether to unionize.
All these elements on the job are a part of workplace democracy and the method is of course transferable to other environments. Students may choose to organize and strike if a school is operating in ways that seem unjust to the students.
There are risks, of course. Strikers may all lose their jobs, as with the air traffic control workers whose union was broken[1] by Ronald Reagan in 1981. Striking students may flunk classes, get suspended, or even be expelled--as we saw[2] in spring 2024, when many universities had students strike in support of Palestinians.
Still, the strike frequently works, especially when good collective leadership negotiates intelligently. Strikes can stand a far better chance of success if all necessary preparations have been made for a longer action--strike funds to help workers pay bills, volunteer medical workers to help if coverage is lost or suspended, food pantries to keep families fed, and commitments to keep picket lines strong so other union members who may have business with the employer have a chance to refuse to cross the lines in solidarity.
While a strike can have negative consequences for a collective that is unprepared or simply overmatched, it has far fewer consequences than actual blockades or sit-ins, and far fewer consequences than any resort to violence. Workplace democracy to working families may be just as critical as political democracy, and keeping the possibility of a strike as a BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement) is one powerful way to participate in democracy.
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