It was called the “Summer of Strikes” or “Summer of the Hot Strike” – except that the movement also continued into the fall and winter.
More than half a million workers staged nearly 400 strikes in the first 11 months of 2023, according to Cornell University's Labor Action Tracker.
“I think it's fair to say that this is a pretty big increase compared to the rest of the 21st century,” says Johnnie Kallas, the tracker's project manager.
From autoworkers to Hollywood actors and authors to airline pilots and UPS, strikes or the threat of strikes proved to be a powerful tool for workers in 2023. But why this year?
Many union contracts had not yet been concluded in 2023. But it was more than just that. Workers felt empowered by other highly visible and successful strikes (or threats of strikes) and a tight labor market, which encouraged them to demand higher wages and other benefits as inflation squeezed them out of more money bag pulled.
“It's really the first contract that a lot of these unionized workers have negotiated since the start of the pandemic, and I think a lot has changed since the start of the pandemic,” Kallas says.
This is particularly true for healthcare workers who have been on the front lines of the pandemic and may also be struggling with feelings of burnout and seeking better working conditions. Kaiser Permanente workers, for example, walked off their jobs in October as part of the largest health care worker strike in U.S. history.
“Combine that with wage increases, which have certainly not kept pace with inflation almost everywhere in recent years, and you end up with a situation in which employees are – in many ways and rightly so – demanding a lot more in these times.” Contract negotiations says Kallas.
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Although the level of strike activity is high compared to the 21st century, it is significantly lower than in the past. During the 1970s, approximately 5,000 work stoppages occurred each year, involving an average of more than 2 million workers.
Today, Kallas says, employers are “far more resistant to both unionization and strikes than they were perhaps in the mid-20th century.”
And it shows. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, union membership rates fell from 20% in 1983 to 10% last year. Still, unions enjoy the support of President Joe Biden and perhaps most of the public.
A majority of Americans, regardless of party affiliation, say unions have improved the quality of life for working Americans, according to a Portal/Ipsos poll released in September. They also expressed support for the United Auto Workers and Writers Guild of America strikes.
“I think the alliance of the public and the labor movement has the potential to impact this dynamic even more in 2024 than we saw in 2023,” says Sharon Block, a professor at Harvard Law School and executive director of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy.
However, the steps involve risks. While the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 protects most workers' right to strike for better work practices or wages, striking workers may be able to be permanently replaced at their jobs.
“Striking is never easy, even now, when it seems like there are a lot of strikes and there is a lot of enthusiasm for strikes,” Kallas says. “Workers don’t want to strike.”
More challenges await you in 2024. The tense situation on the labor market, which previously gave workers a strong bargaining position, has begun to ease in some sectors.
“We expect labor market trends to continue to weaken going forward,” said Lydia Boussour, senior economist at EY-Parthenon. “So there will be an environment where workers will be less confident.”
Kallas says the US is at a critical moment for the labor movement.
“In many ways, we are trying to figure out whether this moment of labor will become a truly sustainable moment with sustained gains over time, or whether it is something more temporary,” says Kallas.