Many governments have banned strikes in public transportation. Whether this can be justified depends on whether strikes endanger public safety or health. We use time-series and cross-sectional variation in powerful registry data to quantify the effects of public transit strikes on urban populations in Germany. Due to higher traffic volumes and longer travel times, total car hours operated increase by 15% during strikes. This effect is accompanied by a 14% increase in vehicle crashes, a 20% increase in accident-related injuries, a 14% increase in particle pollution, and an 11% increase in hospital admissions for respiratory diseases among young children.

This history of New York transit workers from the Great Depression through the monumental 1966 transit strike is one of the most detailed reconstructions to date of the social processes of industrial unionism. It traces the rise of the Transport Workers Union and the virtual revolution it brought about for the men and women who operated the world's largest transit system. It is also a story of politics: the role of Communists in leading the union, the union's relationships with Mayors from la Guardia to Lindsay, and the intense debate over public sector unionism.