10:04 a.m. ET, September 17, 2023
Strikes are making a comeback in the USA
By CNN’s Nathaniel Meyersohn Members of SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America demonstrate in Los Angeles, California on September 13th. Mario Anzuoni/Portal
The United Auto Workers strike is not taking place in a vacuum. It’s part of a growing movement of U.S. workers leaving their jobs.
From Hollywood writers to nurses, factory workers and Starbucks baristas, thousands of workers have gone on strike in recent months to demand higher wages and improved benefits and working conditions. The Teamsters union recently used the threat of a strike by 340,000 members at UPS to win most of its demands, including pay raises and new air-conditioned delivery trucks. Labor has become more aggressive because wages for low- and middle-income workers have stagnated for decades while the richest Americans grew their wealth to unprecedented levels. Corporate profits have soared since the pandemic, and workers want a bigger share of the profits.
“There is a generational shift taking place in the labor movement and its thinking,” said Joseph McCartin, a labor historian at Georgetown University.
Between 1979 and 2022, the inflation-adjusted annual wages of the top 1% of workers rose 145%, while the average annual wages of the bottom 90% rose just 16% — about a tenth as fast, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Several factors contributed to these trends, including deregulation, the decline of unions, and little change in the federal minimum wage.
Autoworkers, for example, are targeting CEO compensation at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, which has risen more than 40% in the past four years, to lobby for wage increases.
Workers also believe they have more bargaining power because of a tight labor market and the strongest public support for unions in decades.
“We live in a strong labor market and economy, and workers and unions will feel a greater impact when economic forces move in the direction they have been going,” McCartin said.
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