Striketober: Why American workers are picketing for overdue economic gains
NICK GONZALEZ: Last week, over 10,000 workers represented by the United Auto Workers labor union launched a strike at 14 John Deere locations across the country. This made John Deere the 178th employer hit with a strike this year, according to a tracker from Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. As workers across America left the workforce in big numbers this August, workers now have an opportunity to flex power at the bargaining table for better wages, benefits and conditions that have been long overdue since before the pandemic.
In a month that labor activists have dubbed Striketober, workers are launching or threatening to launch strikes on a scale of industrial action that the labor movement has not seen in decades. Along with John Deere, workers at Kellogg, Nabisco, Frito-Lay, Kaiser Permanente and even film and television workers in Hollywood are invigorating collective power at the picket lines and bargaining tables. Striketober has manifested an extraordinary moment for American workers in many industries who have been squeezed amidst COVID-19, but now have a vital opportunity to secure long overdue economic gains for living wages, robust benefits and improved working conditions.
COVID-19 has remained at the forefront of driving workers to the picket lines. In particular, many of those on strike have worked in industries where they risk the health of themselves and their families by going to work for a paycheck they can’t afford to forego. Anxieties over COVID-19 were central to thousands of film and television workers in Hollywood represented by the IATSE labor union. They averted a major strike as workers won 3% annual wage hikes and improved conditions on their production sets. These workers are not alone. Others in healthcare, agriculture, manufacturing and retail have faced similar health risks, but have not received the same gains from their employers.
Many workers are now under more pressure than ever. In what many economists are calling a Great Resignation, 4.3 million workers quit their jobs in August which has led to chronic understaffing and unsustainable work conditions. Staff shortages were cited as a reason for 24,000 Kaiser Permanente workers going on strike this month. These shortages have also given workers leverage at the bargaining table since their work cannot be easily replaced. When Nabisco workers went on strike this summer over 84-hour workweeks due to understaffing, it only took a week to win a contract with annual wage increases and updates to workplace policies. Strikes from these shortages are a vital opportunity for workers to win overdue demands by compelling major employers to recognize the value of their labor.
This trend is not a symptom of a labor shortage; it’s a symptom of a living wage job shortage that’s festered in the economy and squeezed workers for decades. Declining union membership rates and collective bargaining has led to staggering inequality. As labor union membership declined from 33 percent in 1945 to 10 percent in 2019, the top one percent raised their income by 160 percent from 1979 to 2019 versus a 26 percent increase for the bottom 90 percent. Average CEO salary has grown by 940 percent since 1978, but worker pay has only increased 17 percent. In many ways, Striketober spotlights these pent-up frustrations of workers who’ve been on the losing end of an increasingly inequitable economy.
Workers and activists in critical industries are winning big demands, but the economy can change and quickly revert to business as usual. To prevent this movement from becoming a moment, federal legislators should strengthen workplace standards and institute benefits like hazard pay and paid medical leave, especially for essential workers. They should also pass the PRO Act, a bill that would level the playing field for workers who wish to unionize and collectively bargain. At the negotiating table, employers should take genuine approaches to hear the needs of their employees and collectively bargain in good faith.
Striketober may be ending, but many inequities will not. COVID-19 and shortages brought decades of inequality to the forefront, but it did not create them. It’s not enough to hail workers and their labor as essential, but then subject them to unsustainable hours with minimum pay and benefits.
The strikes of this month have revealed that workers want to prosper with the economy whose success they help create. We can still manifest that kind of future if we reinvigorate opportunities for all workers to collectively bargain, succeed in their work and strive toward their American Dream.
Nick Gonzalez is an MPP candidate at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy and a Research Assistant at the Workers’ Rights Institute. He is from South San Francisco, California.