United States strike wave of 1945–1946

In the year after V-J Day, more than five million American workers were involved in strikes, which lasted on average four times longer than those during the war.

Many of the protests from 1945 to 1946 were for better pay and working hours, but only one study done by Jerome F. Scott and George C. Homans of 118 strikes in Detroit from 1944 to 1945, found that only four were for wages, with the rest being for discipline and company policies or firings.

According to Jeremy Brecher, they were "the closest thing to a national general strike of industry in the twentieth century.

"[11] In 1947, Congress responded to the strike wave by enacting, over President Truman's veto, the Taft–Hartley Act, restricting the powers and activities of labor unions.

The strike wave also caused a rally in support for the Labour Party, prior to the 1945 United Kingdom general election.