ILR Labor Action Tracker

Our Project

Welcome to the Labor Action Tracker, a collaboration between Cornell University's ILR School and the University of Illinois' LER School. The Tracker provides a comprehensive database of strike and labor protest activity across the United States to better inform and support labor movement activists, policymakers, and scholars. Our project originated at the ILR School in late 2020 and went public on May 1, 2021, as the Cornell ILR Labor Action Tracker thanks to generous funding from the ILR School. In January 2024, the Tracker became a collaborative effort between Cornell ILR and Illinois LER and was rebranded the Labor Action Tracker. We also thank the staff of the China Labour Bulletin for inspiring and encouraging us to develop this project.

We began documenting strikes in late-2020 and labor protests in early-2021. Our database of strikes is most accurate as of 2021. We have a relatively high degree of confidence in our ability to comprehensively capture strike activity. Due to the high number of labor protests across the United States, we aim to provide a general understanding of labor protest activity rather than achieve a complete count. Please note that our map generates the total number of strike and/or labor protest locations, which is more than the total number of individual strikes and/or protests (e.g. a single strike at five locations will appear five times on our map). Information we gather is from public sources and manually inputted into our tracker. Please see our methodology document for a more detailed description of our definitions, protocols, and variables. Follow us on twitter @ILRLaborAction to keep up to date with our project!

For any questions, or to access a spreadsheet version of our project's data, please email Johnnie Kallas at jkallas@illinois.edu.

Current Project Members

Johnnie Kallas

Project Director

Johnnie Kallas is an Assistant Professor at the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois. He received his PhD from Cornell University's ILR School. His research focuses on strikes and labor militancy in the United States, with a special interest in healthcare.

Eli Friedman

Faculty Advisor

Eli Friedman is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of International and Comparative Labor at Cornell University's ILR School. His research focus is on labor politics, labor migration, and urbanization in China.

Deepa Kylasam Iyer

Project Coordinator

Deepa Kylasam Iyer is a PhD student at the Department of International and Comparative Labor at Cornell University's ILR School. Her research focuses on how technology changes the workplace and emerging worker responses in the context of platform-based work.

Luke O'Brien

Research Assistant

Luke O'Brien (BSILR '27) has worked on the Labor Action Tracker since May 2024, assisting with finding and classifying strike data. Luke has previously worked in restaurants and public service and plans to work as an organizer after graduation.

Henry Han

Research Assistant

Henry Han (BSILR '26) has worked on the ILR Labor Action Tracker since August 2023, identifying and logging protest data. Henry previously researched agricultural policy while an intern at Congressman Seth Moulton's District Office and has a particular interest in the intersection of agriculture and labor.

Shoshannah Odinyayeva

Research Assistant

Shoshannah Odinyayeva (BSILR '26) has worked on the ILR Labor Action Tracker since January 2024, identifying and logging protest data. Shoshannah has previously worked in the government sector focusing on legal research projects, and plans to pursue a career in law following graduation.

Mackenzie Schabowski

Research Assistant & Social Media Lead

Mackenzie Schabowski is an MHRIR student at the school of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She joined the Labor Action Tracker in August, 2024, identifying and logging strike outcomes. Her current research interest is mapping the impact of Post-Roe legislation on the career trajectories of college-educated women in the U.S.

Former Project Members

Kathryn Ritchie

Senior Research Assistant & Social Media Strategist

Kathryn Ritchie (BSILR '24) has worked on the ILR Labor Action Tracker since August 2021, assisting with finding and classifying strike and protest data, project communications and social media presence, and team coordination. Kathryn has previously interned with Giffords and is planning on working in the labor movement as a representative or researcher.

Angela Bunay

Research Assistant

Angela Bunay (BSILR '24) has worked on the ILR Labor Action Tracker since August 2021, assisting with finding and classifying strike and protest data. Angela was previously a research intern with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union and is planning on working in the labor movement as an organizer or working as a labor journalist.

Jasmine Fernandez

Research Assistant

Jasmine Fernandez (BSILR '23) has worked on the ILR Labor Action Tracker since August 2022, identifying and logging protest data. Jasmine was previously a research assistant with UNI Global and a Union Scholar with AFSCME and plans on working in the labor movement after graduation.

Carla Gaveglia

Research Assistant

Carla Gaveglia (BSILR '24) has worked on the ILR Labor Action Tracker since August 2022, assisting with finding and classifying protest data. Carla was previously a research intern with the United Federation of Teachers and is planning on pursuing a career in public relations and marketing.

Tara Gideon

Research Assistant

Tara Gideon (BSILR '23) has worked on the ILR Action Tracker since August 2021, assisting with finding and classifying protest data. Tara has previously worked in the service industry and is planning on pursuing a career in human resources after her graduation.

Leo Grageda

Research Assistant

Leo Grageda (MILR '22) has worked on the ILR Labor Action Tracker since May 2021, assisting with finding and classifying strike and protest data. Leo has previously interned with the Bureau of International Labor Affairs at the US Department of Labor and is planning on working in the labor movement after attending law school.

Lily Mackey

Research Assistant

Lily Mackey (BSILR '24) has worked on the ILR Labor Action Tracker since August 2023, assisting with finding and classifying protest data. Lily has previously interned in the labor movement for the Pennsylvania State Education Association and Doctors Council SEIU and plans to work in a union as an organizer or representative after graduation.

Ankit Mehta

Research Assistant

Ankit Mehta (Johnson Cornell Tech MBA '21) has worked on the ILR Labor Action Tracker since December 2020, building a logging and visualization system for labor actions happening across the United States.

Victor Rieman

Research Assistant

Victor Rieman (BSILR '21) has worked on the ILR Labor Action Tracker since October 2020, assisting with finding and classifying strike and protest data, as well as helping to develop a system of verification protocols. Victor has previously interned with SEIU 1199 and is planning on working in the labor movement as a researcher or representative.

Dana Trentalange

Social Media Strategist & Project Coordinator

Dana Trentalange (MILR '21) has worked on the ILR Labor Action Tracker from day one, assisting the team with the data collection process and project coordination. Informed by her time as an organizer with CNA/NNU, she specializes in social media management and content creation for unions and progressive organizations.

Xinying Zou

Graduate Research Assistant

Xinying Zou (MLA '23) has worked on the ILR Action Tracker since September 2022, assisting with finding and classifying strike data. Xinying is planning on pursuing a Ph.D. in sociology related to employment after her graduation.