This includes some 46,000 autoworkers who went on strike for about six weeks starting in mid-September. The United Auto Workers union has made historic strides that could benefit the industry through its contracts with General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, the company that includes Chrysler.
In addition, more than 75,000 Kaiser Permanente workers took part in the largest strike of U.S. health care workers to date.
This crescendo of trade action follows a relative calm in movements in the United States and a decline in the union club that began in the 1970s. Today’s moves may seem unprecedented, especially if you’re under 50. While this wave is a significant replacement after decades of union losses, it is far from unprecedented.
We’re sociologists who study the history of U.S. labor movements. In our new book, “Union Booms and Busts,” we explore the reasons for swings in the share of working Americans in unions between 1900 and 2015.
We see the growing number of movements as a sign that the balance of power between staff and employers, which has tilted in favour of employers for almost part of a century, is beginning to shift.
The number of U. S. workers striking in any given year varies widely, but it follows broader goals. After the end of World War II, until 1981, between 1 and 4 million Americans went on strike each year. By 1990, that number had declined. In some years, it has fallen below 100,000.
Obviously the workers were then on the defensive for several reasons.
A dramatic turning point was the standoff between President Ronald Reagan and the country’s air traffic controllers, culminating in a strike in 1981 through their union, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization. Like many public servants, air traffic controllers were not allowed to strike, yet they went on strike anyway for protection and other reasons. Reagan described the union as unfair and ordered that all striking PATCO staff be fired. The government turned to army supervisors and controllers to inform them and decertified the union.
This episode sent a strong message to employers that the permanent replacement of strikers in safe conditions would be tolerated.
Numerous court rulings and new legislation have also favored big business at the expense of hard-work rights. These come with the passage of so-called right-to-work legislation that provides union representation to non-union members in unionized workplaces, without requiring the payment of union dues. Many conservative states, such as South Dakota and Mississippi, have passed such legislation, as well as states with more liberal voters, such as Wisconsin.
As the unionization rate fell from 34. 2% of the workforce in 1945 to around 10% in 2010, staff are less likely to strike.
Wages kept pace with productivity gains when unions were more powerful than they are today. Wages rose by as much as 91. 3%, while productivity rose by as much as 96. 7% between 1948 and 1973. That replaced when the unionization rate began to fall. Wages stagnated between 1973 and 2013, rising to just 9. 2 percent, even as productivity rose to 74. 4 percent.
In general, these measures are more common when economic situations replace tactics that empower workers. This is especially true with tight, hard-working markets and the highest inflation seen in the U. S. in recent years.
When there are fewer applicants for each vacancy and costs rise, staff become bolder in their demands for higher salaries and benefits.
Political and legal aspects may also play a role.
In the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt strengthened the organizing capacity of labor unions. During World War II, unions pledged not to strike, and some employees continued to strike.
The number of striking U. S. personnel peaked in 1946, a year after the war ended. Situations then were conducive to commercial action for a number of reasons. The economy was no longer so committed to supplying the military, the New Deal’s pro-union law still intact, and restrictions on wartime strikes were lifted.
In contrast, Reagan’s crushing of the PATCO strike gave the green light to employers to permanently update strikers to conditions where legal.
Likewise, as we describe in our book, employers can take many steps to discourage strikes. But labor organizers can sometimes overcome management’s resistance with creative strategies.
Between 1983 and 2022, the share of U.S. workers who belonged to unions fell by half, from 20.1% to 10.1%. The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t reverse that decline, but it did change the balance of power between employers and workers in other ways.
The “great resignation,” an increase in the number of staff who left their duties during the pandemic, now appears to be over, or at least has decreased. The number of unemployed per job vacancy was 4. 9 in April 2020, fell to 0. 5 in December 2021, and has remained low ever since.
Meanwhile, many employees are increasingly dissatisfied with their salaries. Teachers’ movements that intensified in 2018 responded to this frustration. Inflation, which soared to 8% in 2022, has eroded the purchasing power of staff, while corporate profits and economic inequality have continued to soar.
Technological breakthroughs that leave workers behind are also contributing to today’s strikes, as they did in other periods.
We study the role it played through generation in the printers’ movements of the 1890s, following the advent of linotype, which reduced the need for professional workers, and in the dockers’ strike of 1971, through a drastic downsizing brought about by the arrival of shipping boxes.
This is a precedent for the actors and writers strikes of 2023, which hinged on the monetary implications of streaming in film and television and synthetic intelligence in film and show production.
Working conditions, coupled with problems of physical fitness, protection and time off, have also been the cause of many recent strikes.
Health care workers, for example, are striking for a safe workforce. In 2022, railroad staff voted to strike against leave and time off on health grounds, but were prevented from leaving their jobs by a vote of the U. S. Senate and President Joe Biden’s decision. signature.
Time and time again, when the situation was right, U. S. personnel went on strike and won. At times, other measures followed, in waves that may have ended the lives of staff. But it’s still too early to know when this wave will peak.
This is an updated edition of an article originally published on August 24, 2023, with almost complete knowledge about the number of strikers in 2023 and other main points about various strikes. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. . Read the original article.
This article is part of TPM Café, TPM’s news and opinion research platform. Originally published in The Conversation. Guatemala. . .
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s news and opinion research platform. Originally published in The Conversation. More. . .
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s news and opinion research platform. Originally published on The Conversation. Con. . .
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s news and opinion research platform. Originally published on The Conversation. Speaker. . .