Question: May workers employed by a large company go on strike in order raise their salaries or improve their working conditions?
Answer: The Gemara in Masechet Baba Batra (8b), quoting the words of the Tosefta, writes that the members of any given city may come together and decide to establish certain enactments regarding various social and economic matters; they may also decide to penalize anyone who transgresses these enactments with certain monetary fines and the like.
The Rama rules likewise (in Choshen Mishpat, Chapter 2) that regarding these issues, we follow the custom of that specific place, even if it is a matter that will cause several of the city’s residents a financial loss.
Based on this, Maran Rabbeinu Ovadia Yosef zt”l writes (in his Responsa Yechave Da’at, Volume 4, Chapter 48) that the heads of professional unions may go on strike in order to demand higher wages, easier working conditions, and the like. He proceeds to support this custom from several teachings of our Sages in the Talmud and Poskim. He quotes the words of the Rashba in one of his responses (Volume 4, Chapter 185) where he writes that if all of the workers in a city, such as slaughterers, dyers, or sailors, agree to a certain matter that relates to their trade based on however they see fit, this agreement has the strength of Torah law. They may likewise punish anyone who transgresses their agreement however they see fit, for a group consisting of members of the same trade is considered like their own “city.” (If there is a prestigious Torah scholar among them who has not agreed to the terms they have set forth, their agreement is worthless as stated in the Gemara.)
Maran zt”l concludes that the custom has become for factories and government organizations to use this method of striking and they indeed have on whom to rely, besides for occupations upon which human lives are contingent, such as hospitals and the like.
This means that doctors and nurses may not engage in tactics that may endanger the welfare of the public. They must come together and find an alternative negotiation tactic that will not harm the public in need of their services. However, other workers who feel that they are being wronged with regards to their working conditions may in fact go on strike in order to improve the terms of their employment.
