Yet in 2015, only eighty-one thousand workers participated in strikes, and only 170,000 days were lost to labor action. These figures represent the fewest strikers and the second-smallest loss to productivity since records began in 1893. 

“The legal framework works against workers,” argues Chris, an IWW organizer. “It’s tailored toward management, but also toward compromise. If you reject that framework, then you can operate in a way that is actually really effective.”

The rise of the unorganizable