Are Strikes Allowed in Jewish Law? The Halachic Basis for Labor Protests

In the Talmud, Bava Batra 8b cites a passage from the Tosefta: “The residents of a city are permitted to establish regulations regarding weights and measures, market prices, and workers’ wages — and they may enforce these rules through penalties.”

In other words, the people of a city have the authority to collectively enact social and economic ordinances, and they may even impose fines or other sanctions on anyone who violates these communal agreements.

The Rema likewise rules (Choshen Mishpat 2) that in all such matters we follow the accepted custom of the city, even if some residents may suffer financial loss as a result.

Based on this, our teacher, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef wrote (Yechaveh Da’at 4:48) that professional unions are permitted to use the “weapon” of a strike in order to negotiate higher wages or improved working conditions — as is common practice today. He cites multiple sources in Chazal supporting this.

He also quotes the Rashba (Responsa 4:185), who writes that if all members of a particular trade — such as butchers, dyers, sailors, and so on — agree on regulations for their profession, their agreement is binding as if it were Torah law. They may penalize anyone who violates the agreement, because each professional guild functions like its own “mini-city.”

(However, if there is a distinguished Torah scholar among them who does not agree to their regulations, the agreement loses its validity — as explained in the Gemara.)

Rabbi Ovadia concludes that the common practice in modern society, in which unions strike in factories and public institutions in order to improve workers’ rights, has solid halachic basis.

Exceptions — When Strikes are Forbidden

The only exception is in areas involving danger to human life, such as medical care.

Therefore:

• Doctors, nurses, and hospital staff may not initiate strikes or sanctions that could endanger patients or cause harm to public health.

• They must instead find alternative forms of protest that do not put lives at risk.

For other types of workers — who feel that they are being treated unfairly in their employment conditions, it is halachically permitted to hold strikes and labor actions in order to improve their situation.