By Katie Johnston-Chase, Globe Staff
Supermarket shoppers in the Boston area have been seeing a rare sight over the past month: workers on strike.
Shaw’s employees have been picketing in front of 16 local Shaw’s stores since March 8, a day after union members at Shaw’s Supermarkets Inc.’s Methuen warehouse voted to walk out. It isn’t a major work stoppage — there just over only 300 workers at the distribution center — but it’s shining a light on how infrequent strikes have become in Boston and across the nation.
Nationwide, the number of strikes dropped from nearly 1,000 in 1984 to 133 in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2009, according to the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University. Only five strikes with 1,000 workers or more took place last year — the lowest number on record — involving about 35,000 workers. By comparison, in the late 1970s, there were 200 to 300 large strikes a year, affecting more than a million workers annually.
The Shaw’s strike — which is mainly over health care costs, as most modern-day strikes are — is one of the few work stoppages that have taken place in New England in the past few years. In December, 450 industrial laundry workers in Somerville went on strike against Angelica Corp., but there were no strikes in Massachusetts in the previous fiscal year, and only two in the region. About 36,000 Stop & Shop workers in Southern New England were able to avert a strike last month by reaching a deal with the company.
The decline in the number of strikes goes hand in hand with the decline in the number of unions. In the mid-1950s, a third of the workforce was in a union, according to the Center for Labor Market Studies. By last year, that number had fallen to 12 percent.
As the number of unions drops and the public becomes increasingly disconnected from them, strikes have less of an impact on consumer opinion than they used to, labor analysts say. The lack of union presence, as well as a perception that union workers have better benefits than nonunion workers, can make it more difficult for consumers to relate to workers’ struggles, which generally makes a strike less effective, said James Green, a labor historian at the University of Massachusetts at Boston.
“The question in all these strikes is can you successfully appeal for the public’s support even if some of them don’t have the benefits you have?’’ he said.
Winning over consumers is key for workers striking at retail companies like Shaw’s. The workers picketing in front of Shaw’s on Morrissey Boulevard say they’ve seen a decline in business at the store since they started action in early March, citing fewer cars in the parking lot and fewer UMass students stopping in on their way to the T station. “I think we’ve had a big impact,’’ said Michael McKeon, 31, of Haverhill, who has worked at the Methuen warehouse for 10 years.
Shaw’s spokeswoman Judy Chong declined to comment on the effect the strike has had on the 176-store chain, which recently laid off 4 percent of its store workers and closed 18 locations in Connecticut. “Sometimes we have to make difficult business decisions,’’ she said, “but ultimately they allow us to operate more effectively and efficiently in the marketplace.’’
The recession is playing into the current labor environment, said Richard Rogers, executive secretary-treasurer of the Greater Boston Labor Council, which represents 151 unions in the area. In a down economy, unionized businesses like Shaw’s find it increasingly difficult to compete against nonunion stores that can more easily control worker costs.
“The economy is emboldening management to pressure these workers into a substandard wage and benefit package,’’ Rogers said.
On top of that, workers may be less likely to take a stand against a company during a shaky economy. When there aren’t many jobs to be had, and unemployed workers are eager to step in and take a striking union member’s job, it takes even more collective bargaining power away from unions, labor analysts say. Two weeks ago, for instance, Shaw’s started hiring workers to replace the picketing warehouse employees, a few of whom the company said have opted to return to work.
“We’re in a time where workers basically just feel that they’re not in a strong position to contest what firms are offering them,’’ said Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies.
But with the public’s anger at corporate greed at a boiling point, some labor analysts and leaders predict there will be a resurgence of actions by workers against companies.
“When people are backed against the wall, they feel like they have no choice,’’ said Russ Davis, executive director of Massachusetts Jobs With Justice, a coalition of community and labor organizations that campaigns for workers’ rights.
Without a fight, Davis sees corporate America using the recession to permanently restructure the nature of jobs with more part-time and temporary positions and lower wages and fewer benefits.
“What happens now,’’ he said, “is going to determine what work looks like for a generation.’’