Replacement workers were hired in numerous strikes during 2012, most notably in a strike against Caterpillar Inc., which despite earning a record $4.9 billion in profits in 2011 insisted on a six-year wage freeze and a pension freeze for most of the production workers at its Joliet, Illinois plant.
In 2012, the National Football League locked out its referees and hired replacement referees. Most notoriously, 1,300 workers spread across five plants in the Midwest have been locked out by American Crystal Sugar since August 2011, with replacement workers performing their jobs.