A strike's success is contingent on getting as many people as possible to stop working. A strike needs cooperation to be successful. Often, employers try to counter this by bringing in "strike-busters," additional temporary workers to disrupt the effect of the strike. Based solely on these two facts, it's clear that there are a few conditions that make for a devastatingly successful strike. These include an extremely cohesive workforce of high cost, hard to replace workers.
One strike that squarely nailed every single one of these conditions was the Skylab mutiny. Skylab 4 the continuation of the Skylab project, a NASA run space station. The mission was composed of Gerald Carr, Edward Gibson, and William Pogue, who would be on board and performing experiments for eighty-four days.
The mission started out poorly; during the process of unloading and activating the station, the crew began to feel overworked. Their work schedules were written out to the minute, and each day was sixteen hours long. They complained to NASA many times, and the NASA ground crew in return began to get frustrated with the three astronauts. Two of the previous Skylab groups warned Nasa that they were overworking the green crew, but they continued to press.
Eventually, the astronauts reached a breaking point. All three of them agreed not to do any work for an entire day, as an act of protest. They informed ground control of their decision, then turned off their radios. Ground control was stuck. In a typical strike, managers have some recourse. But the Nasa engineers on the ground were in a different situation. The cost of keeping an astronaut in space is astronomical, (haha) so every day that is wasted is a huge expense. And Nasa couldn't just replace them since they were in space. So they just quietly went along with the strike. After 24 hours, when the astronauts finally turned on their radios again, Nasa was willing to listen and made compromises, allowing the astronauts to plan out their own schedules with only a set of required items, and built-in breaks.
The astronauts held a lot of power in this strike. Their technical expertise and positional value allowed them to exert influence over their managers, and it was ultimately what allowed them to be successful in their bid for better labor rights.
Sources: https://www.spacelegalissues.com/the-skylab-strike-and-the-need-for-an-outer-space-labour-law/
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/did-skylab-4s-astronauts-really-go-on-strike
Sources: https://www.spacelegalissues.com/the-skylab-strike-and-the-need-for-an-outer-space-labour-law/
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/did-skylab-4s-astronauts-really-go-on-strike
This is pretty genius, considering NASA can't just send replacement astronauts to the space station. For the most part, NASA has a monopsony over astronauts, resulting in less flexibility for workers. However, this example shows that even those employed under a monopsony have the power to strike and demand better treatment for workers.
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