Wildcat strike

A wildcat strike, sometimes referred to as a wildcat strike action, is a unauthorized strike by workers without the authorization of the trade union authorized by the government to negotiate with an employer. This is sometimes termed unofficial industrial action. Wildcat strikes were the key fighting strategy during the May 1968 protests in France.

Canada
On March 23, 2012, Air Canada ground employees suddenly walked off the job at Toronto Pearson International Airport, resulting in many flight delays, due to the fact that three workers were suspended for heckling Canadian Labor Minister Lisa Raitt. This followed months of fighting between Air Canada and its other unions.

United States of America
Wildcat strikes have been considered illegal in the United States since 1935. The 1932 Norris-La Guardia Act held that clauses in labor contracts barring employees from joining unions were not enforceable, thus granting employees the right to unionize regardless of their workplace situation. Unions have the power to bargain collectively on behalf of their members and to call for strikes demanding concessions from employers. Under the 1935 National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), federal courts have held that wildcat strikes are illegal and that employers may fire workers participating in them.

Nevertheless, workers can formally request that the National Labor Relations Board end their association with their labor union if they feel that the union is not sufficiently supportive of them. At this point, any strike action taken by the workers may be termed a wildcat strike, but there is no illegality involved as there is no longer a conflict between sections 7 and 9(a) of the NLRA.

Vietnam
In Vietnam, all workers are required to join a union connected to the Vietnam General Conference of Labor, a government-controlled entity. Due to workers' distrust of this agency, nearly all strikes in the country are wildcat strikes.

Notable wildcat strikes

 * Pullman Strike (Illinois, 1894)
 * Putilov Factory Strike (Petrograd, Russia, 1917)
 * Victorian Police strike (Australia, 1923)
 * Memphis Sanitation Strike (Memphis, Tennessee, 1968)
 * May '68 (France, 1968)
 * Chrysler wildcat strike (Michigan, 1968)
 * US postal strike (U.S., 1970)
 * General Motors wildcat strike (Connecticut, Election Day 1976)
 * Winter of Discontent (U.K., 1978-1979)
 * Jeffboat wildcat strike (Indiana, 2001)
 * Dhaka strikes (Bangladesh, 2006)
 * Toronto Transit Commission wildcat strike (Canada, 2006)
 * Freightliner wildcat strike (North Carolina, 2007)
 * 2009 Lindsey Oil Refinery strikes
 * 2010 Spanish Air Controllers Strike (Spain, 2010)