tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/strikes-8151/articlesStrikes – The Conversation2024-02-20T17:00:43Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2225702024-02-20T17:00:43Z2024-02-20T17:00:43ZArgentina’s anti-government protests offer a lesson for the international struggle against the rise of the far right<p>In the first 24 hours of his reign, the new president of Argentina, Javier Milei, <a href="https://chequeado.com/el-explicador/ministerios-cuantos-y-cuales-fueron-en-cada-gestion/">halved the number</a> of previously existing government ministries in a manner resembling a dystopian science fiction novel. Milei amalgamated education, culture, labour and social welfare into a “Ministry of Human Capital” led by his friend and former television producer, Sandra Pettovello.</p>
<p>Milei is a far-right populist leader who labels himself an “anarcho-capitalist libertarian”. In his presidential campaign, he used social media expertly, attracting <a href="https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/argentinas-new-conservative-coalition/">many young men</a> and those who feel left out of the political class and want something different. </p>
<p>More than 40% of Argentina’s population is <a href="https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/argentina/uca-report-puts-argentinas-poverty-rate-at-431.phtml">very poor</a>. These people, who sometimes do not know where their next meal is coming from, voted for the “complete reset” promised by Milei in viral memes and videos where he <a href="https://apnews.com/article/milei-argentina-chainsaw-fed35a37c6137b951e4adada3d866436">brandished a chainsaw</a> or hoisted a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/wielding-chainsaw-huge-dollar-bill-argentine-radical-taps-into-voter-fury-2023-09-15/">huge US$100 bill</a> with his face on it.</p>
<p>Milei admires western versions of cutthroat capitalism. His legislation mimics the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/money/Washington-consensus">Washington Consensus</a> fiscal policy “discipline” of the 1990s, and makes explicit attacks on human and workers’ rights, social welfare, and all forms of political activism. </p>
<p>Thus, comparisons have been made with 1976, when an <a href="https://theconversation.com/workers-in-argentina-face-the-biggest-blow-to-their-employment-rights-since-the-military-dictatorship-of-the-1970s-220611">Argentine military junta</a> seized political power of the country. After taking power, the dictatorship regressively reformed labour relations. Given this history, and the rising autocracy that is now sweeping much of the world, it’s no surprise that tensions are arising.</p>
<h2>Mass mobilisation</h2>
<p>Milei’s radical economic programme is designed to clear the terrain for a free-market society. People will supposedly be unleashed from the perils of the welfare state, free to become millionaires and consume the suddenly flowing bounty of goods and services in a capitalist paradise. </p>
<p>Milei’s “shock therapy” started by <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67688727">weakening the value</a> of Argentina’s currency by 50% against the US dollar. This move has driven up prices, particularly for internationally obtained goods like medicine, and has <a href="https://www.ambito.com/economia/fuerte-ajuste-jubilaciones-febrero-el-poder-adquisitivo-va-ser-mas-que-la-crisis-2001-n5943851">eroded the purchasing power</a> of salaries and pensions. The currency devaluation was also accompanied by severe funding cuts to health, social benefits, culture, science and more.</p>
<p>Just 45 days after the new government was instituted, the General Confederation of Labour <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/24/argentina-strike-protest-javier-milei">called</a> for a general strike. Businesses and educational institutions closed, and tens of thousands of Argentinians took to the streets in protest at the severe cuts to funding and the outright market-facing stance that Milei is taking. </p>
<p>Popular assemblies, student gatherings, and judicial and political actions are limiting the government’s initial plans. In January, an Argentine court <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-67881300">suspended</a> the labour reforms Milei had brought in by emergency decree after taking office. </p>
<p>Under those reforms, the probation period for workers would have increased, employees who were dismissed would have received less compensation, and maternity leave would have been shortened.</p>
<h2>The art of protest</h2>
<p>Argentina is no stranger to left-wing mass mobilisations. But this one stands out for its aesthetic prowess. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576534/original/file-20240219-28-x8qvsd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Protestors at holding aloft a black octagonal sign reading 'Exceso Vaciamiento de la Cultura'." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576534/original/file-20240219-28-x8qvsd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576534/original/file-20240219-28-x8qvsd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576534/original/file-20240219-28-x8qvsd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576534/original/file-20240219-28-x8qvsd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576534/original/file-20240219-28-x8qvsd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576534/original/file-20240219-28-x8qvsd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576534/original/file-20240219-28-x8qvsd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Protestors hold a sign complaining of ‘too much cultural destruction’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Phoebe Moore</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
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<p>Protestors held signs with the message “La patria no se vende” (the homeland is not for sale). They carried plaques depicting a father and son, where the son asks “Papa, que es rendirse?” (Father, what is surrender?), to which the adult replies: “No se, hijo, somos Peronistas” (I don’t know, son, we are Peronistas). </p>
<p>Peronism is a political movement based on the ideas and legacy of former Argentine president Juan Perón (1895–1974), who called for the state to take a leading role in the economy.</p>
<p>Another protest sign resembled a health warning label frequently seen on sugar-laden treats. But, rather than “Exceso de azucar” (too much sugar), it said “Exceso vaciamiento de la cultura” (too much cultural destruction).</p>
<h2>Attacking state research</h2>
<p>One of us (Phoebe Moore) attended the general strike protest in Buenos Aires on January 24 with a group of social science researchers working for Argentina’s national research agency, <a href="https://www.conicet.gov.ar/about-the-conicet/?lan=en">Conicet</a>. Their trade union represents state and public sector workers. </p>
<p>Conicet researchers Julia Soul, Clara Marticorena and Maurizio Atzeni said that public sector workers have been specifically targeted by Milei’s radical reforms. Soul stated: “Milei asks: ‘What do state researchers do? What do we produce?’ Apparently, nothing. We are called ‘gnocci’.” Gnocci is Argentinian slang with a similar meaning to “jobsworth” in the UK.</p>
<p>Milei has repeatedly engaged in a cultural battle against the idea of universal rights, the provision of basic needs, and anything held in common. He advocates for the privatisation of education, healthcare, and even the introduction of market forces into <a href="https://www.pagina12.com.ar/599276-mercado-libre-de-bebes-la-propuesta-de-milei-que-refloto-en-">child adoption processes</a> to gain “efficiency”.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576730/original/file-20240220-23-io09l1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A protestor holding a placard reading 'Tyrant Milei, I shove your laws up my arse'." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576730/original/file-20240220-23-io09l1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576730/original/file-20240220-23-io09l1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576730/original/file-20240220-23-io09l1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576730/original/file-20240220-23-io09l1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576730/original/file-20240220-23-io09l1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576730/original/file-20240220-23-io09l1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576730/original/file-20240220-23-io09l1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A protestor’s placard reads: ‘Tyrant Milei, I shove your laws up my arse.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Phoebe Moore</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
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<p>However, according to Atzeni: “Public research in science and technology systems has always been closely intertwined with innovation”. This can be seen in the development of treatments for health issues such as the <a href="https://www.conicet.gov.ar/especialistas-del-conicet-desarrollan-una-vacuna-para-prevenir-y-tratar-la-enfermedad-de-chagas/">Chagas disease</a>, and <a href="https://www.conicet.gov.ar/el-mincyt-conicet-y-universidad-nacional-del-litoral-anunciaron-la-aprobacion-del-trigo-hb4-en-argentina/">new patents</a> for genetically modified crops.</p>
<p>Marticorena warned that Milei’s actions are going to lead to reduced state sovereignty. Ignoring local talent even where it has been successful and recognised internationally will probably lead to a brain drain, diminishing the ability of the state to make independent assessments and decisions. This concern has been <a href="https://www.pagina12.com.ar/704281-plenario-por-la-ley-omnibus-el-discurso-completo-de-alberto-">repeatedly voiced</a> by members of the scientific community, who warn that prioritising private interests and granting advantages to private capital will undermine Argentina’s economic, social and cultural development prospects. </p>
<p>Milei’s radical organisation policies align with privatisation and neoliberal capitalist mythology. But fundamentally, he aims to reshape relationships between the state, civil society, and the market. This is something that Argentine society has already experienced, and to which it responded for more than 40 years by saying <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NUNCA_MAS.ogv">“Nunca más”</a> (never again). </p>
<p>History doesn’t always repeat itself, but we may have to go through some battles more than once. The resistance we’re seeing in Argentina shows how to build strength that is needed worldwide, to stand up against the resurgence of the far right.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222570/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Luciana Zorzoli was a doctoral and postdoctoral fellow of Argentina's National Council for Scientific and Technical Research.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Phoebe V Moore does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Argentine society is responding strongly to Javier Milei’s radical policies.Phoebe V Moore, Professor of Management and the Futures of Work, University of EssexLuciana Zorzoli, Senior Lecturer in Employment Relations, Essex Business School, University of EssexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2215712024-01-23T22:23:54Z2024-01-23T22:23:54Z1 in 10 US workers belong to unions − a share that’s stabilized after a steep decline<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570925/original/file-20240123-27-ah1i7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C301%2C4591%2C2428&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Members of the faculty union of the California State University system walk a picket line in December 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/members-of-the-faculty-union-of-the-california-state-news-photo/1827960132?adppopup=true">Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570941/original/file-20240123-19-h9lyme.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570941/original/file-20240123-19-h9lyme.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570941/original/file-20240123-19-h9lyme.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570941/original/file-20240123-19-h9lyme.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570941/original/file-20240123-19-h9lyme.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570941/original/file-20240123-19-h9lyme.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570941/original/file-20240123-19-h9lyme.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570941/original/file-20240123-19-h9lyme.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>The share of U.S. workers who belong to a union <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm">fell slightly to 10% in 2023</a>, from 10.1% a year earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. </p>
<p>As a <a href="http://www.jakerosenfeld.net/">scholar of organized labor</a>, I’m not shocked by this slight decline, although if there was ever a year to expect the unionization rate to increase, it was 2023.</p>
<p>Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation that unites 60 unions, has proclaimed 2023 “<a href="https://aflcio.org/2024/1/12/year-labor-2023-was-just-beginning">the year of labor</a>.” She wasn’t exaggerating. </p>
<p>Successful walkouts by <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sag-aftra-contract-deal-agreement-actors-ai/">Hollywood actors</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/09/25/1201498353/three-takeaways-about-the-hollywood-writers-tentative-agreement">screenwriters</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/united-auto-workers-union-hails-strike-ending-deals-with-automakers-that-would-raise-top-assembly-plant-hourly-pay-to-more-than-40-as-record-contracts-216432">autoworkers</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/health-care-workers-gain-21-wage-increase-in-pending-agreement-with-kaiser-permanente-after-historic-strike-215864">health care professionals</a> demonstrated how effective strikes can be in achieving union gains.</p>
<p>And a serious threat of a strike produced a historic contract for <a href="https://theconversation.com/ups-and-teamsters-agree-on-new-contract-averting-costly-strike-that-could-have-delayed-deliveries-for-consumers-and-retailers-210431">hundreds of thousands of UPS workers</a>. Combined with the continuation of union-organizing victories at <a href="https://www.hr-brew.com/stories/2023/11/14/starbucks-new-benefits-wages">companies such as Starbucks</a> and <a href="https://oaklandside.org/2023/04/24/trader-joes-unionization-oakland-rockridge-labor-violations/">Trader Joe’s</a>, it certainly seemed like 2023 was, as a New York Times headline proclaimed, “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/06/briefing/labors-very-good-year.html">Labor’s very good year</a>.” </p>
<p>Why would all that successful labor organizing fail to boost growth in the percentage of workers who belong to a union?</p>
<p>Research points to a number of factors, including the difficulties of organizing at a <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315499093-3/accounting-decline-unions-private-sector-1973%E2%80%931998-henry-farber-bruce-western">large scale</a> and the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/31/louisville-kentucky-trader-joes-workers-union-drive">pushback by companies</a> facing organizing drives.</p>
<h2>Workforce growth</h2>
<p>The economy has been growing at a healthy clip, <a href="https://www.bea.gov/data/gdp/gross-domestic-produc">expanding by 4.9%</a> in the third quarter of 2023. The <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf">U.S. gained 3 million jobs</a> over the course of 2023.</p>
<p>When the overall labor force grows, unions must recruit new members just to maintain the prior unionization rate. With the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm">size of the labor force today</a>, simply maintaining the status quo requires adding roughly 300,000 new union members annually to keep the level of unionization in the workforce stable. </p>
<p>In 2023, <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm">14.4 million U.S. workers belonged to a union</a>, edging up from 14.2 million the previous year, the government determined. That’s impressive, but not quite enough of a gain for unions to maintain their prior organization rate.</p>
<p>The nation’s unionization rate is the lowest it has been in <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/featured-stories/labor-unions-and-the-us-economy">over a century</a>. While many nations with similar economies have also experienced this kind of decline, the low American rate is both historically and internationally unique.</p>
<p>Sweden’s unionization rate is <a href="https://www.oecd.org/employment/collective-bargaining-database-sweden.pdf">6.5 times</a> higher. Canada’s is nearly <a href="https://www.oecd.org/employment/collective-bargaining-database-canada.pdf">three times as high</a>.</p>
<p>The decline of union ranks in the U.S. has been <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.t03.htm">sharpest in the private sector</a>, where only 6% of workers belong to a union. Among government workers, nearly 1 in 3 do.</p>
<h2>Stalled momentum</h2>
<p>Given the difficulties in organizing in the private sector in the U.S., periods of substantial union growth occur in rare spurts. A <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/230408">successful union drive can prove contagious</a>, leading to a rapid wave of union wins in an industry. This is what labor leaders and supporters were hoping for from a string of high-profile victories at Amazon, Starbucks, Trader Joe’s and other big employers. </p>
<p>But for unionization to spread, nonunion workers must be <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3874221">convinced that the very real</a> <a href="https://ecommons.cornell.edu/items/fa0ae2b6-3dc1-42c4-8b49-bc880bdd70fd">risks of a unionization drive</a> are worth it.</p>
<p>A union contract can provide evidence that the benefits of organizing outweigh the costs. Without such a contract, many nonunion workers won’t take the risk. Companies know this and <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/177557/trader-joes-union-busting-bargaining-table-first-contract">employ a number of delay tactics</a> to drag out the process and dampen the early enthusiasm for union recognition. </p>
<p>For example, in the spring of 2022, <a href="https://theconversation.com/amazon-starbucks-and-the-sparking-of-a-new-american-union-movement-180293">workers at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island</a>, New York, voted to unionize – the first union footprint in Amazon’s vast and expanding U.S. workforce. Nearly two years later, that warehouse remains the lone unionized facility among the <a href="https://tinuiti.com/blog/amazon/amazon-fulfillment-centers-map">more than 100 fulfillment centers Amazon operates</a> in the U.S.</p>
<p>The company’s refusal to bargain to a first contract is a big factor stymieing momentum.</p>
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<h2>Better faith required</h2>
<p>Labor actions continue to crop up, with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/23/us/california-state-faculty-strike-deal.html">strikes by educators</a> and <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/19/la-times-union-walkout-00136655">journalists</a> underway in January 2024. United Auto Workers leader Shawn Fain boldly vows to expand his union’s ranks by organizing employees of <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/27/success/shawn-fain-labor-leader-of-year/index.html">electric and foreign-owned vehicle companies</a>.</p>
<p>But without changes to the nation’s labor laws that get more employers to bargain in good faith – and to do so speedily – it’s reasonable to expect to see companies continue to delay and disrupt attempts to negotiate a first contract. </p>
<p>As a result, even another “very good year” for labor won’t translate into substantial gains in the ranks of union members.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221571/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Along with Patrick Denice and Jennifer Laird, Jake Rosenfeld recently received a grant from the Washington Center for Equitable Growth to study labor union dynamics in the public sector.</span></em></p>Because the economy gained 3 million jobs in 2023, unions had to draw hundreds of thousands of new members just to hold their ground.Jake Rosenfeld, Professor of Sociology, Washington University in St. LouisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2214552024-01-19T18:07:25Z2024-01-19T18:07:25ZWhy 150,000 public sector workers in Northern Ireland have been on strike<p>An estimated 150,000 public sector workers in Northern Ireland went on strike on January 16 as part of a long-running dispute over pay and conditions. The strike, which involved workers from 16 trade unions, was the largest in more than 50 years. </p>
<p><a href="https://datavis.nisra.gov.uk/economy-and-labour-market/Employee-earnings-NI-2023.html">Official figures show</a> that between April 2022 and April 2023, real pay (adjusted for inflation) in Northern Ireland’s public sector fell by 7.2%. That decline came on the heels of real pay falling by more than 4% between April 2021 and April 2022, and two decades of no growth in public sector real pay.</p>
<p>While there is much talk about an “Irish Sea border” because of post-Brexit trade arrangements, a sea border of sorts already exists when it comes to public sector earnings. Differences in <a href="https://www.nipsa730.org.uk/wp/2023/09/07/september-2023-update/">public sector pay</a> between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK are long-running grievances for workers.</p>
<p>Newly qualified teachers in Great Britain make about £30,000, while in Northern Ireland they <a href="https://neu.org.uk/about/nations/neu-northern-ireland/teachers-pay-campaign-northern-ireland">start on £24,000</a>. A newly qualified doctor in Northern Ireland earns a base salary of <a href="https://www.bma.org.uk/bma-media-centre/junior-doctors-in-northern-ireland-to-be-balloted-for-industrial-action">£26,000 per year</a>. In England the starting rate is over £32,000, and in Scotland it is £31,000. </p>
<h2>Deteriorating public services</h2>
<p>One cannot detach the demand for higher pay from the broader economic and political malaise in which Northern Ireland finds itself.</p>
<p>Conservative-led austerity at the UK level <a href="https://www.ulster.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/542586/UUEPC-Public-and-private-sector-pay-270220-FINAL.pdf">introduced 1% pay caps</a> on public sector pay increases from 2010 to 2019. And austerity budgets led to increasingly dilapidated public services. Similar to much of the rest of the UK, schools across Northern Ireland <a href="https://www.stran.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/The-Consequences-of-the-Cuts-to-Education-for-Children-and-Young-People-in-Northern-Ireland-Final.pdf">now strain to cover bills and maintain services</a>.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/13211/pdf/">NHS figures from 2023</a> show that about 122,000 patients are awaiting surgery and a further 378,400 people are waiting to see a consultant for the first time. GP surgeries are closing in many places and there are real risks to some hospitals. Unions representing healthcare workers, the British Medical Association and Royal College of Nursing NI, have <a href="https://www.bma.org.uk/bma-media-centre/bma-ni-and-royal-college-of-nursing-ni-raise-concerns-about-staff-exhaustion">raised the alarm</a> about the impact of underfunded services on doctor and nurse fatigue. </p>
<p>Making work strain and stretched resources worse still is the fact that <a href="https://www.rcn.org.uk/northernireland/Get-Involved/Northern-Ireland-fair-pay-and-safe-staffing-campaign">recruitment</a> has become a real problem, especially in education and health. </p>
<p>While these problems prevail across the UK, they have particularly hit Northern Ireland where public sector workers make up a <a href="https://www.economicsobservatory.com/the-good-friday-agreement-at-25-has-there-been-a-peace-dividend">greater proportion</a> of the workforce than in the rest of the UK. The recent effects of higher inflation and rising interest rates have added to the pain. </p>
<h2>Political issues</h2>
<p>The strike comes amid an ongoing political crisis in the region, as the devolved administration, the Northern Ireland executive, collapsed in February 2022 and remains in a stalemate. </p>
<p>The unique power-sharing feature of the Stormont government means either of the two major power blocs of nationalists and unionists can prevent a functioning executive by refusing to participate. In this case, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) pulled out over post-Brexit trade agreements, and has refused to return until its concerns, both economic and ideological, are met.</p>
<p>The lack of an executive affects industrial relations, because public sector pay is a devolved matter, within the constraints of Treasury funding. If the executive was in place, ministers would receive direction from pay review bodies and set a pay policy for negotiation with the unions. In the absence of the executive, that cannot happen.</p>
<p>An even bigger problem, however, is the region’s public finances, itself a consequence of the inadequacies of the “Barnett Formula”, the mechanism by which the UK Treasury allocates funding to support public spending across the devolved regions. The formula, which is Treasury policy, has been assessed by the unions, among others, to be <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/123832/pdf">wholly inadequate</a> in meeting Northern Ireland’s public expenditure needs.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Northern Ireland secretary Chris Heaton-Harris outside of Number 10 Downing Street" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570351/original/file-20240119-15-qfy3sa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570351/original/file-20240119-15-qfy3sa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570351/original/file-20240119-15-qfy3sa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570351/original/file-20240119-15-qfy3sa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570351/original/file-20240119-15-qfy3sa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570351/original/file-20240119-15-qfy3sa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570351/original/file-20240119-15-qfy3sa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Northern Ireland secretary Chris Heaton-Harris.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-united-kingdom-november-22-2022-2285215571">I T S/Shutterstock</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Due to the collapse of the executive, the UK’s Northern Ireland secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, set Northern Ireland’s budget for 2023-24, to ensure public services could continue. But perception in Northern Ireland is that Heaton-Harris set a “punishment budget” to coerce the DUP back into government. The budget requires budget overspends from past years to be paid back to the Treasury. Combined with inflation, this has meant, in real terms, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-65404988">funding cuts</a> in the latest budget for education, health care, justice and economy from the previous year.</p>
<p>The consequences of this led the Northern Ireland department of finance – the body allocating the public sector pay pot – to claim that pay deals equivalent to those in Britain were <a href="https://www.finance-ni.gov.uk/news/public-sector-pay-policy-guidance-2023-2024-published">not affordable for 2023-24</a>. </p>
<p>Heaton-Harris has since indicated a willingness to remedy this should the executive return, by <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/41c27034-de3a-4f2b-8d1c-f809ceb5ad8c">dangling the carrot</a> of £3.3 billion in funds, including public sector pay awards. The money is there, and unions have called on Heaton-Harris to <a href="https://www.unitetheunion.org/news-events/news/2024/january/heaton-harris-must-release-public-sector-funds-or-face-further-escalation-of-strikes">release it</a> despite the lack of a functioning government at Stormont. But the hurdle remains the DUP’s unwillingness to reenter government until their concerns are addressed. </p>
<p>Even if such money is made available, it would be little more than a short-term sticking plaster for the region, given the ongoing economic and political issues.</p>
<p>Where next for the unions? At the time of writing, some remain on strike, others have promised further action, and some union officials have raised the prospect of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-67968999">civil disobedience</a>. The willingness of unions to sustain action, however, looks set to be determined by the political agenda which, in the short-term, is still uncertain.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221455/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Niall Cullinane receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council and previously the British Academy.</span></em></p>The record strike action comes amid an ongoing political crisis in Stormont.Niall Cullinane, Professor in organisation, work and leadership, Queen's University BelfastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2210952024-01-16T17:45:20Z2024-01-16T17:45:20ZSaskatchewan teacher strike: It’s about bargaining for the common good<p>For the first time in more than a decade and for only the <a href="https://leaderpost.com/news/saskatchewan/explainer-a-brief-history-of-teachers-strikes-in-saskatchewan">fourth time since 1973</a>, people in Saskatchewan are facing interruptions to schooling due to teacher labour unrest.</p>
<p>While a <a href="https://regina.ctvnews.ca/teachers-hit-the-picket-line-as-saskatchewan-deep-freeze-continues-1.6726764">Jan. 16 province-wide teachers’ strike</a> means only <a href="https://regina.ctvnews.ca/no-teacher-wanted-this-stf-president-says-5-day-strike-notice-was-about-giving-sask-parents-time-1.6723525">a single day</a> of job action, there is a real possibility strike actions could escalate over the next few weeks. </p>
<p>That’s particularly the case with 90 per cent of Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF) members having participated in an October vote about job action against the government — and
<a href="https://saskatoon.ctvnews.ca/buckle-up-sask-teachers-union-votes-95-in-favour-of-potential-job-action-1.6619971">95 per cent of those voting teachers</a> backing job action. </p>
<p>The strike follows early December news that conciliation talks between the STF and the Government of Saskatchewan had broken off. </p>
<p>According to the teachers’ union, the <a href="https://www.stf.sk.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/12-13-2023_STF-Message-to-Saskatchewan-Parents-and-Students.pdf">central issues</a> in this dispute are <a href="https://leaderpost.com/news/saskatchewan/teachers-union-frustrated-with-province-not-addressing-growing-class-sizes">class size</a>, “classroom complexity” (<a href="https://leaderpost.com/news/what-is-classroom-complexity-and-why-does-it-matter-to-the-stf">the diversity of student needs in any one classroom,</a>), <a href="https://leaderpost.com/news/saskatchewan/stf-bargaining-update">related support for students</a>, <a href="https://leaderpost.com/news/stf-says-job-action-virtually-inevitable-after-failed-talks-with-province">workplace violence</a>, meaningful actions to <a href="https://saskatoon.ctvnews.ca/sask-teachers-union-province-at-odds-on-key-issues-as-contract-talks-languish-1.6672626">reconciliation education</a> and other in-class issues. </p>
<p>For their part, teachers have not made their wage demands public, suggesting that for them, wages are not the central issue in this round of bargaining.</p>
<p>Both <a href="https://x.com/evanbrayshow/status/1735045295543669098?s=20">conservative commentators</a> <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/10180136/saskatchewan-premier-scott-moe-state-of-education/">and the premier</a> have argued the bargaining table is not the place for teachers to negotiate concerns about classroom issues. </p>
<p>The province, focused on wages, has tabled an offer that keeps wages at below inflation <a href="https://www.saskatchewan.ca/government/news-and-media/2023/june/29/government-trustee-bargaining-committee-tables-fair-deal-for-teachers">levels for the next three years</a>. </p>
<p>In other provinces, teachers’ unions have successfully argued that classroom size is directly related to workload, which has always been a collective bargaining matter. </p>
<p>Although bargaining is sometimes interpreted narrowly as a discussion over wages and benefits it is not, by its nature, limited to that. Bargaining can — and has — acted as a democratic tool to expand public resources to areas beyond workplace compensation.</p>
<h2>Bargaining classroom size</h2>
<p>In Ontario, the <a href="https://www.pssbp.ca/wp-content/uploads/Teachers-Meshed-Agreement-2019-2022-FINAL-emailed-for-signatures-March-1-2021-PDF.pdf">Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario</a> has negotiated that the boards and government provide ongoing classroom size data to the union in order to determine future classroom ratios. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://osstftoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/HotLinked-2019-2022-OSSTF-Collective-Agreement-Finalised-with-All-Signatures-1.pdf">Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation</a> has language on class size in its collective agreements with specific classroom ratios. </p>
<p>Similar negotiations have occurred in Québec over <a href="https://cpn.gouv.qc.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2023/03/CPNCA_APEQ_E5_CC-ang_consolide_2023-03-15_V2.pdf">workload issues</a>. </p>
<p>The British Columbia Teachers’ Federation won a <a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/16241/index.do">dramatic ruling</a> before the Supreme Court of Canada in 2016. The court ruled the government’s decision to unilaterally prevent teachers <a href="https://canliiconnects.org/en/commentaries/44636">from bargaining classroom size and composition</a> was a violation of their constitutional rights to bargaining collectively. </p>
<p>The decision resulted in hiring hundreds of new teachers to address chronically underfunded classrooms in that province.</p>
<h2>Cuts to education</h2>
<p>The dispute in Saskatchewan did not come out of nowhere. </p>
<p>There has been a 10 per cent drop in <a href="https://www.stf.sk.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Education-in-Saskatchewan-Facts-and-Statistics_11-Oct-2023.pdf">per-student funding since 2012-2013</a>. </p>
<p>In 2017, the Saskatchewan Party government <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/saskatchewan-government-decides-not-to-amalgamate-school-boards-1.4035499">cut funding to public education</a> by $22 million from the previous fiscal year. In the same period, <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/10027832/saskatoon-schools-enrolment-spikes/#">enrolments have risen to record numbers</a>. </p>
<p>These issues pushed teachers to a collective bargaining dispute in <a href="https://thestarphoenix.com/news/local-news/top-stories-of-2020-teachers-strike-avoided-as-pandemic-surged-into-saskatchewan">2019, but it was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic</a>. </p>
<h2>Staffing crises</h2>
<p>Post-pandemic, teacher morale and turnover have reached crisis levels. </p>
<p>Samantha Becotte, the STF’s president, noted there has been a general crisis in <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9940451/canada-teacher-shortage">education across the country</a> evident in teacher shortages, with <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9848620/saskatchewan-teachers-contract-talks/#">an attrition rate of about 40 per cent among educators in the first five years of their careers</a>.</p>
<p>Becotte’s comments align with research showing attrition rates have hovered <a href="https://archipel.uqam.ca/12263/1/2013_Karsenti%2C%20T%20et%20Collin%2C%20S_Education.pdf">at close to 50 per cent</a> over about the last decade. </p>
<p>Government underfunding has also led to creeping <a href="https://leaderpost.com/opinion/heather-ganshorn-medeana-moussa-beware-privatization-creep-in-education-system">privatization</a>. </p>
<p>Squeezed board budgets have meant an increase in fees to some Saskatoon and Regina parents <a href="https://leaderpost.com/news/saskatchewan/upped-lunch-hour-supervision-fees-for-sask-parents-as-school-resumes">for lunch-time supervision</a>.</p>
<p>These cuts have also resulted in <a href="https://www.stf.sk.ca/about-stf/news/bargaining-impasse-declared-teachers-to-hold-sanctions-vote/#">dramatic declines in classroom supports</a>. Numbers have dropped for many educational roles, including for <a href="https://pubsaskdev.blob.core.windows.net/pubsask-prod/90049/2022-23%252BEducation%252BSector%252BStaffing%252BProfile%252B-%252Bprov.pdf">educational assistants, English as an additional language teachers, counsellors, librarians, psychologists and other pathologists</a>. </p>
<h2>‘Parents rights’ issues</h2>
<p>On top of this, the government called a special session of the legislature in September 2023 to bring in a hastily drafted bill to <a href="https://theconversation.com/saskatchewan-naming-and-pronoun-policy-the-best-interests-of-children-must-guide-provincial-parental-consent-rules-212431">restrict the ability of transgender and gender-diverse children from</a> being able to identify with their preferred pronouns at school. </p>
<p>The government said this was an issue <a href="https://regina.ctvnews.ca/parents-bill-of-rights-officially-introduced-in-sask-legislature-beginning-pronoun-policy-s-push-into-law-1.6598701">of parents’ rights</a>. Yet many others interpreted it as an attack on the ability of teachers to provide necessary support and guidance to kids in a safe and supportive environment. </p>
<p>For some, it speaks to a hostile position of the government towards teachers, since the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/sask-name-pronoun-policy-new-school-year-1.6956559">STF has opposed the policy and pledged support for teachers who refuse to abide by it</a>.</p>
<h2>Bargaining as important tool</h2>
<p>Trying to prevent teachers from including issues surrounding unmet student needs in bargaining is to effectively leave the public in the dark on the conditions of our schools and render governments largely unaccountable. </p>
<p>The most important tool that all unionized workers have at their disposal is their ability to collectively bargain. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-teachers-union-activism-helped-shift-the-u-s-election-debate-on-education-147620">How teachers' union activism helped shift the U.S. election debate on education</a>
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<p>As researchers with the Center for Innovation in Worker Organization at Rutgers University have documented, unions across North America have leveraged broad public support to <a href="https://smlr.rutgers.edu/faculty-research-engagement/center-innovation-worker-organization-ciwo/bargaining-common-good">bargain for issues related to the common good</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://smlr.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/Documents/Centers/CIWO/ciwo_bcg-memo.pdf">Many of these campaigns</a> have been waged by teachers’ unions. Unions have bargained for many things, including linguistic and cultural resources for teachers, more diverse staffing, anti-racism education, green education — and importantly for teachers in Saskatchewan — smaller classroom sizes. </p>
<h2>Unions driving change</h2>
<p>Unions beyond the education sector <a href="https://archives.nupge.ca/sites/default/files/documents/New-Forms-of-Privatization-2016.pdf">in Canada</a> have <a href="https://cupe.ca/sites/cupe/files/bargaining_and_privatization_guide_en.pdf">made similar gains</a>. </p>
<p>For example, in 1981-1982, the <a href="http://www.justlabour.yorku.ca/volume19/pdfs/04_nichols_press.pdf">Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW)</a> waged a strike to extend paid maternity leave benefits to workers. CUPW’s success encouraged other unions to take a similar position and today public maternity/paternity leave is a universal <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/ei/ei-maternity-parental.html">public program</a>. </p>
<p>Unions and their members have real power when they use the tools available to them to seek real workplace and community change.</p>
<h2>Bargaining about trade-offs</h2>
<p>To be sure, bargaining is about trade-offs. Prioritizing issues related to what unions identify as key “common good” themes might mean that other issues cannot be highlighted. </p>
<p>Workers might forego larger wage increases for smaller classroom sizes or for increased resources for issues like reconciliation with Indigenous nations.</p>
<p>But that is a choice workers will democratically make through their union. In the case of Saskatchewan teachers, the numbers do not lie. While salaries and benefits will always be an issue, there is overwhelming teacher support for existing bargaining proposals. </p>
<p>We believe this democratic mandate is significant — and one that could lead to safer and more just educational experiences for workers and students across the province.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221095/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Enoch is a member of the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Chronically underfunded classrooms with fewer supports to meet student needs is a core issue for Saskatchewan teachers.Charles Smith, Associate Professor, Political Studies, University of SaskatchewanSimon Enoch, Adjunct professor, Department of Politics and International Studies, University of ReginaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2199032023-12-20T13:15:44Z2023-12-20T13:15:44Z2023’s historic Hollywood and UAW strikes aren’t labor’s whole story – the total number of Americans walking off the job remained relatively low<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566377/original/file-20231218-27-2y9ix7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=53%2C502%2C5470%2C3511&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">SAG-AFTRA captain Mary M. Flynn rallies fellow striking actors on a picket line outside Netflix studios in November 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/APTOPIXHollywoodStrikes/5dfb21d54c2f4414bd9f4adde9a2a0e1/photo?Query=hollywood%20strike&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=2120&currentItemNo=33">AP Photo/Chris Pizzello</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.wsj.com/business/unions-workers-2023-strikes-companies-da09de12">More than 492,000 workers</a> – including nurses, actors, screenwriters, autoworkers, hotel cleaners, teachers and restaurant servers – walked off their jobs <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/03/us/california-labor-strikes.html">during the first 10 months of 2023</a>.</p>
<p>That includes about <a href="https://theconversation.com/united-auto-workers-union-hails-strike-ending-deals-with-automakers-that-would-raise-top-assembly-plant-hourly-pay-to-more-than-40-as-record-contracts-216432">46,000 autoworkers who</a> went on strike for about six weeks, starting in mid-September. The United Auto Workers union won historic gains that have the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/31/business/economy/uaw-labor.html">potential to transform the industry</a> in its contracts with General Motors, Ford and Stellantis – the company that includes Chrysler.</p>
<p>In addition, more than <a href="https://theconversation.com/health-care-workers-gain-21-wage-increase-in-pending-agreement-with-kaiser-permanente-after-historic-strike-215864">75,000 Kaiser Permanente workers</a> took part in the largest strike of U.S. health care workers to date.</p>
<p>This crescendo of labor actions follows a relative <a href="https://www.umass.edu/lrrc/strikes">lull in U.S. strikes</a> and a <a href="https://www.umass.edu/lrrc/union-membership">decline in union membership</a> that began in the 1970s. Today’s strikes may seem unprecedented, especially if you’re under 50. While this wave constitutes a significant change following <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm">decades of unions’ losing ground</a>, it’s far from unprecedented.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=w6GUu_EAAAAJ">We’re sociologists</a> who <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=69FEXj0AAAAJ&hl=en">study the history of U.S. labor movements</a>. In our new book, “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/union-booms-and-busts-9780197539859?cc=us&lang=en&">Union Booms and Busts</a>,” we explore the reasons for swings in <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/union2.pdf">the share of working Americans in unions</a> between 1900 and 2015. </p>
<p>We see the rising number of strikes today as a sign that the balance of power between workers and employers, which has been tilted toward employers for nearly a half-century, is beginning to shift. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543808/original/file-20230821-29-djs9wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Workers at a rally carrying strike signs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543808/original/file-20230821-29-djs9wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543808/original/file-20230821-29-djs9wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543808/original/file-20230821-29-djs9wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543808/original/file-20230821-29-djs9wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543808/original/file-20230821-29-djs9wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543808/original/file-20230821-29-djs9wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/543808/original/file-20230821-29-djs9wm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Maryam Rouillard raises her fist on Aug. 8, 2023, while taking part in a one-day strike by Los Angeles municipal workers to protest contract negotiations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/view-of-a-hearse-on-5th-avenue-with-a-sign-that-reads-new-news-photo/1311461424?adppopup=true">Apu Gomes/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Millions on strike</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.umass.edu/lrrc/strikes">number of U.S. workers who go on strike in a given year</a> varies greatly but generally follows broader trends. After World War II ended, through 1981, between 1 million and 4 million Americans went on strike annually. By 1990, that number had plummeted. In some years, it fell below 100,000.</p>
<p>Workers by that point were clearly on the defensive for several reasons. </p>
<p>One dramatic turning point was the showdown between President Ronald Reagan and the country’s air traffic controllers, which culminated in a 1981 strike by their union – the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2006/08/03/5604656/1981-strike-leaves-legacy-for-american-workers">Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization</a>. Like many public workers, air traffic controllers did not have the right to strike, but they called one anyway because of safety concerns and other reasons. Reagan depicted the union as disloyal and ordered that all of PATCO’s striking members be fired. The government turned to supervisors and military controllers as their replacements and <a href="https://libraries.uta.edu/news-events/blog/1981-patco-strike">decertified the union</a>.</p>
<p>That episode sent a strong message to employers that permanently replacing striking workers in certain situations would be tolerated.</p>
<p>There were also many <a href="https://www.mheducation.com/highered/product/labor-relations-striking-balance-budd/M9781260260502.html">court rulings and new laws</a> that favored big business over labor rights. These included the passage of so-called <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/labor-and-employment/right-to-work-resources">right-to-work laws</a> that provide union representation to nonunion members in union workplaces – without requiring the payment of union dues. Many conservative states, like South Dakota and Mississippi, have these laws on the books, along with states with more liberal voters – such as Wisconsin.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/19/union-membership-drops-to-record-low-in-2022-00078525">union membership plunged</a> from <a href="https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/R47596.html">34.2% of the labor force in 1945</a> to around 10% in 2010, workers became less likely to go on strike.</p>
<p>Wages kept up with productivity gains when unions were stronger than they are today. Wages increased 91.3% as productivity grew by 96.7% between 1948 and 1973. That changed once union membership began to tumble. <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/charting-wage-stagnation/">Wages stagnated</a> from 1973 to 2013, rising only 9.2% even as productivity grew by 74.4%.</p>
<p><iframe id="euMoy" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/euMoy/9/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Prime conditions</h2>
<p>In general, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/001979398203500402">strikes grow more common when economic conditions change</a> in ways that empower workers. That’s especially true with the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/unemployment-benefits-jobless-claims-layoffs-labor-47d74791145f0224280ffe908b6e820a">tight labor markets</a> and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-wholesale-federal-reserve-interest-rates-consumers-1838b302c99045749b0597853886d32c">high inflation</a> seen in the U.S. in recent years.</p>
<p>When there are fewer candidates available for every open job and prices are rising, workers become bolder in their demands for higher wages and benefits.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/800649">Political and legal factors</a> can play a role, too. </p>
<p>In the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s <a href="https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-source-timeline/great-depression-and-world-war-ii-1929-1945/labor-unions-during-great-depression-and-new-deal/">New Deal enhanced unions’ ability to organize</a>. During World War II, unions agreed to a no-strike pledge – although some workers continued to go on strike.</p>
<p>The number of U.S. <a href="https://www.umass.edu/lrrc/strikes">workers who went on strike peaked in 1946</a>, a year after the war ended. Conditions were ripe for labor actions at that point for several reasons. The economy was no longer so dedicated to supplying the military, pro-union New Deal legislation was still intact and <a href="https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/podcasts/best-my-ability-podcast/season-2-archive/episode-5-strike-wave">wartime strike restrictions</a> were lifted.</p>
<p>In contrast, Reagan’s crushing of the PATCO strike gave employers a green light to permanently replace striking workers in <a href="https://www.nlrb.gov/strikes">situations in which doing that was legal</a>.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<h2>New economic equations</h2>
<p>Between 1983 and 2022, the share of U.S. <a href="https://data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServlet">workers who belonged to unions fell by half, from 20.1%</a> to <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/19/majorities-of-adults-see-decline-of-union-membership-as-bad-for-the-u-s-and-working-people=">10.1%</a>. The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t reverse that decline, but it did change the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/state-job-vacancies-pay-raises-wage-war-74d1689d573e298be32f3848fcc88f46">balance of power between employers and workers</a> in other ways.</p>
<p>The “<a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/03/09/majority-of-workers-who-quit-a-job-in-2021-cite-low-pay-no-opportunities-for-advancement-feeling-disrespected/">great resignation</a>,” a surge in the number of workers quitting their jobs during the pandemic, now seems to be over, or at least cooling down. The number of <a href="https://www.bls.gov/charts/job-openings-and-labor-turnover/unemp-per-job-opening.htm">unemployed people for every job opening</a> reached 4.9 in April 2020, plummeted to 0.5 in December 2021, and has remained low ever since. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, many workers have become more dissatisfied with their wages. The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/25/teachers-strikes-us-low-pay-covid">strikes by teachers</a> that ramped up in 2018 responded to that frustration. <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FPCPITOTLZGUSA">U.S. inflation, which soared to 8% in 2022</a>, has eroded workers’ purchasing power while <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-25/us-corporate-profits-soar-taking-margins-to-widest-since-1950">company profits</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-inequality-is-growing-in-the-us-and-around-the-world-191642">economic inequality</a> have continued to soar. </p>
<p>Technological breakthroughs that leave workers behind are also contributing to today’s strikes, as they did in other periods.</p>
<p>We’ve studied the role technology played in the <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/union-booms-and-busts-9780197539859?cc=us&lang=en&">printers’ strikes</a> of the 1890s following the introduction of the linotype machine, which reduced the need for skilled workers, and the <a href="https://depts.washington.edu/dock/1971_strike_history.shtml">longshoremen strike of 1971</a>, which was spurred by a drastic workforce reduction brought about by the <a href="https://www.marineinsight.com/maritime-history/the-history-of-containerization-in-the-shipping-industry/">introduction of shipping containers</a> to transport cargo.</p>
<p>Those are among the precedents for the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/actors-strike-ends-hollywood-5769ab584bca99fe708c67d00d2ec241">actors and screenwriters</a> strikes of 2023, which hinged on the financial implications of <a href="https://apnews.com/article/residuals-hollywood-strike-actors-writers-7c32f386c910a11db4324875d99dc366">streaming in film and television</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-are-hollywood-actors-and-writers-afraid-of-a-cinema-scholar-explains-how-ai-is-upending-the-movie-and-tv-business-210360">artificial intelligence in the production</a> of movies and shows.</p>
<p>Working conditions, including <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ups-teamsters-strike-labor-logistics-delivery-a94482dbff7bfb67ad82f607ab127672">health and safety concerns and time off</a>, have also been at the root of many recent strikes.</p>
<p>Health care workers, for example, are going on strike over safe <a href="https://apnews.com/article/nurses-strike-new-jersey-394eb774eea0add0a60c272c5b7819ac">staffing levels</a>. In 2022, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/railroad-paid-sick-time-negotiations-norfolk-southern-70327831f881dcf86a43e05d22a5bdd5">rail workers</a> voted to strike over sick days and time off, but were blocked from walking off the job by a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-signs-bill-block-us-railroad-strike-2022-12-02/">U.S. Senate vote and President Joe Biden’s signature</a>.</p>
<p>Time and again, when the conditions have been right, U.S. workers have gone on strike and won. Sometimes more strikes have followed, in waves that have the potential to transform workers’ lives. But it’s still too early to know when this wave will crest. </p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article originally published <a href="https://theconversation.com/waves-of-strikes-rippling-across-the-us-seem-big-but-the-total-number-of-americans-walking-off-the-job-remains-historically-low-210673">Aug. 24, 2023</a>, with nearly complete data for the number of strikers in 2023 and additional details about several strikes.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219903/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Judith Stepan-Norris received funding from the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jasmine Kerrissey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Two labor scholars argue that the balance of power between workers and employers, which has been tilted toward employers for nearly a half-century, is beginning to shift.Judith Stepan-Norris, Professor Emerita of Sociology, University of California, IrvineJasmine Kerrissey, Associate Professor of Sociology; Director of the Labor Center, UMass AmherstLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2195362023-12-18T12:08:46Z2023-12-18T12:08:46ZStrikes: when companies collaborate with unions, industrial action can benefit business<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565537/original/file-20231213-21-74z8oi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=27%2C13%2C4511%2C3003&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-june-24-2022-passengers-2171150547">Nigel J. Harris/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>More than 4 million working days <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/timeseries/bbfw/lms">have been lost</a> to industrial action in the UK in 2023. This is more than at any point since 1989 and around nine times more than the yearly average of 450,000 days in the 2010s. </p>
<p>This is level of activity is particularly high given the lower union membership levels at the moment – <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/646dcc477dd6e7000ca9b289/Trade_Union_Membership_UK_1995-2022_Statistical_Bulletin.pdf">22% of workers</a> were in a union in 2022, compared to 39% in 1989. But the uptick in industrial disputes has happened across a wide range of professions in which people are concerned about stagnating pay and conditions.</p>
<p>Indeed, the cost of living crisis has certainly been a key factor, but it’s not the only thing driving industrial activity at the moment. Supply and demand for labour <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/unemployment">has also changed</a>, with workers feeling more empowered to fight for improved working conditions. </p>
<p>Unsurprisingly then, a number of strikes have already been <a href="https://www.strikecalendar.co.uk/">planned for 2024</a> and more workers could be balloted if these disputes are not resolved. It’s possible for organisations and their employees to collaborate to avoid protracted disputes – in fact collective labour movements can actually benefit companies by boosting employee wellbeing and motivation.</p>
<p>On the other hand, new legislation designed to diminish the effects of industrial action could weigh on workers’ enthusiasm for it. Policymakers and the judiciary have <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24421680?casa_token=KuFaSFXhZRAAAAAA%3AT4tQmpCn1nypRxokLooWSWH0L-uY85qFZC469Scf_G8lE09VtxX2YWFdcCovzwDpdjfpdtN9PcgDjD7kls4Svz_RnPuwfrNGjky0h928guo9TTDJ-ss">a long history</a> of trying to curtail <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1945071">the collective labour movement</a>.</p>
<p>The latest attempt, the <a href="https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3396">Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023</a>, is designed to reduce the amount of industrial action and limit disruption to the general public. It will require employers to provide the union with a written “work notice”, which is formal notification of levels of service needed during a strike. Rail workers will be expected to ensure at least 40% of trains run, for example.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/strikes-bill-could-breach-uk-workers-human-rights-and-expose-the-government-to-legal-challenges-200685">Strikes bill could breach UK workers' human rights and expose the government to legal challenges</a>
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<p>The government passed this act to ensure that the public can continue to access services they rely on during strike action. Most European countries have had some form of minimum service level regime for many years and organisations such as the UN’s <a href="https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:70002:0::NO::P70002_HIER_ELEMENT_ID,P70002_HIER_LEVEL:3945998,2#:%7E:text=Minimum%20service%20should%20be%20restricted,not%20render%20the%20strike%20ineffective.">International Labour Organization</a> (ILO) have recognised that such approaches can be an appropriate way of balancing the ability to strike with the rights of the wider public.</p>
<h2>Preparing for minimum service levels</h2>
<p>Once minimum service levels have been set and are in force, employers will need to decide on the staffing resources required to meet them. They will also need to create procedures for issuing <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/minimum-service-levels-msl-issuing-work-notices/minimum-service-levels-issuing-work-notices-a-guide-for-employers-trade-unions-and-workers">work notices</a> to relevant trade unions. This must specify the people required to work and what needs to be carried out during the strike, after consultation with the relevant trade unions. Employers will also need to understand and monitor whether trade unions take proper responsibility for ensuring the relevant people comply with a work notice. </p>
<p>HR departments will need to implement contingency planning for periods of industrial action. Some organisations, such as the <a href="https://www.nhsemployers.org/publications/managing-industrial-action">NHS</a>, have already set out plans to manage strike action. </p>
<p>Employers can’t plug staffing gaps caused by strikes with <a href="https://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/content/news/employers-could-use-agency-staff-during-strikes-following-new-consultation/">agency workers</a>. But HR departments can reassign existing staff to do the jobs of striking workers. These non-striking staff can be temporarily replaced by agency workers if necessary, as long as the employer has the contractual right to do so or has gotten the employee’s consent beforehand.</p>
<p>Encouraging senior management to provide temporary cover is also a common approach. This can be viewed positively by other workers, as well as helping prevent further disruption to business operations. Once industrial action ceases, employers are then able to use agency workers to help clear backlogs.</p>
<h2>Wider benefits of industrial action</h2>
<p>While policymakers clearly think legislation is needed to deter industrial action and curb its impact on peoples’ lives, collective labour movements can also have benefits for businesses.</p>
<p>Once a strike is over, provided it was settled amicably, companies sometimes see a <a href="https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/ielapa.078391466098123">productivity bounce</a>. Industrial action can have a profound and positive psychological effect on workers who feel they have re-established control over their working life. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Group of people at a conference table talking, relaxed." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565546/original/file-20231213-21-kjm7hu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565546/original/file-20231213-21-kjm7hu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565546/original/file-20231213-21-kjm7hu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565546/original/file-20231213-21-kjm7hu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565546/original/file-20231213-21-kjm7hu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565546/original/file-20231213-21-kjm7hu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565546/original/file-20231213-21-kjm7hu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Working with union representatives can help businesses support employee wellbeing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/happy-mature-businessman-attending-meeting-his-2055147128">Jacob Lund/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>More generally, working with trade unions can not only avoid action in the first place, it can actually <a href="https://www.tuc.org.uk/added-value-trade-unions">benefit the workplace</a>. Boosting pay, improving training and striking a better work-life balance helps maintain a stable workforce and can increase motivation and innovation by employees. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cipd.org/uk/the-people-profession/careers/roles/employee-relations/#:%7E:text=Employee%20relations%20specialists%20play%20a,help%20develop%20effective%20people%20practices.">Employment relations specialists</a> have become a dying breed in recent decades due to the rise of a more <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/00483480910977992/full/html">“unitarist” approach to industrial relations</a>. This theory assumes compatible goals, a common purpose and a single (unitary) interest shared by an organisation and its employees. If this interest is managed effectively, the organisation will function harmoniously and avoid conflict, particularly industrial action.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/uk-strikes-why-the-government-must-start-mediating-talks-according-to-negotiation-experts-196403">UK strikes: why the government must start mediating talks, according to negotiation experts</a>
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<p>Indeed, research shows the benefits of a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09585192.2012.667429">more “pluralistic” approach</a>, in which employers and trade unions acknowledge their <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265752824_Employment_Relations_Integrating_Industrial_Relations_and_Human_Resource_Management">strategic relationship</a> and continually discuss working conditions in a clear and transparent way. This can help head off disputes before they happen. For example, the <a href="https://www.fnlondon.com/articles/bank-of-england-heads-off-strike-action-despite-below-inflation-pay-hike-20230125">Bank of England</a> prevented strike action in 2023 by agreeing to a 3.5% pay rise for its 4,200 staff, as well as a 1% salary top-up (which benefited the lowest paid in its ranks the most) and a 1% benefits uplift that could be taken in cash.</p>
<p>Minimum service levels may affect people’s appetite for prolonged industrial action in 2024, but <a href="https://www.strikecalendar.co.uk">there are already strikes planned for the new year</a>. Companies should communicate positively with their employees so that disputes do not become protracted like they have done over the last 18 months. </p>
<p>It’s possible to defuse a strike by understanding the other party’s perspective and avoiding extreme demands. In many cases, simply bridging the worker-management divide could help provide employees with the information and support they need to feel comfortable that they’re getting fair pay and conditions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219536/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Lord does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s been a big year for industrial action but what’s in store for 2024?Jonathan Lord, Lecturer in Human Resource Management and Employment Law, University of SalfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2170642023-11-27T19:34:04Z2023-11-27T19:34:04ZNext on the United Auto Workers’ to-do list: Adding more members who currently work at nonunion factories to its ranks<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560571/original/file-20231121-24-oer4wu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=106%2C152%2C4872%2C3109&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Will Tesla's workers be the next to approve a UAW contract?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/EarnsTesla/8d2415b3d23949aca5513ecd9c47f8ec/photo?Query=tesla&mediaType=photo,video,graphic,audio&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=3150&currentItemNo=65">AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Having negotiated “<a href="https://theconversation.com/united-auto-workers-union-hails-strike-ending-deals-with-automakers-that-would-raise-top-assembly-plant-hourly-pay-to-more-than-40-as-record-contracts-216432">record contracts</a>” with the Big Three – and seen the bulk of its <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/1-uaw-says-64-workers-150358604.html">rank-and-file members approve them</a> – the United Auto Workers says its work isn’t done.</p>
<p>The union intends to <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/10/20/uaw-strike-organizing-automakers">try once more</a> to persuade the rest of the U.S. auto industry’s workers to <a href="https://labornotes.org/2019/06/why-uaw-lost-again-chattanooga">join the union</a>.</p>
<p>“We’re going to organize like we’ve never organized before,” <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/03/tesla-toyota-in-uaws-sights-for-organizing-after-big-3-wins.html">said UAW President Shawn Fain</a>.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=TcpezG4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">labor scholars</a> who have <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=EQEoODAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">studied union finances</a>, we believe this is a formidable objective. On top of the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-buffalo-new-york-business-826b91456748c7167fe977d458aaba2d">intense corporate resistance</a> from the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/03/tesla-toyota-in-uaws-sights-for-organizing-after-big-3-wins.html">likes of Tesla CEO Elon Musk</a>, there’s the high cost of waging expensive campaigns in states like <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/09/22/1200875078/south-non-union-uaw-strike-foreign-automakers">Tennessee and Alabama</a>, which have “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/12265934.2021.1919183">right-to-work</a>” laws designed <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/labor-and-employment/right-to-work-resources">to discourage labor organizing</a>. </p>
<p>But the United Auto Workers appears to have the money, know-how and institutional infrastructure to launch these organizing campaigns.</p>
<h2>The other 57%</h2>
<p>About 146,000 UAW members are employed by General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, the global company that makes Chrysler, Dodge and Ram vehicles in North America. That’s down from <a href="https://money.cnn.com/1999/06/14/companies/uaw/">407,000 in 1999</a>.</p>
<p>So far, none of the autoworkers employed by the Big Three’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/29/business/uaw-ford-contract.html">foreign-based competitors</a> or the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/09/business/economy/ev-battery-union.html">U.S.-based electric vehicle manufacturers</a> belong to a union. Each of the Big Three has joint ventures with various foreign-based companies to produce batteries. The workers at <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/09/gm-lg-ev-battery-plant-uaw-union-vote.html">only one of these joint venture plants</a> have voted to join the UAW.</p>
<p>Today, the UAW represents <a href="https://www.bls.gov/iag/tgs/iagauto.htm">43% of the U.S. automotive workforce</a> in vehicle manufacturing. The other 57%, roughly 190,000 workers, are employed by Toyota, Honda and other foreign companies, and Tesla or another <a href="https://evmagazine.com/top10/top-10-pure-play-ev-companies">domestic electric vehicle manufacturer</a>. Nonetheless, in comparison to other industries, the degree of unionization in the automotive industry remains about <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/union2.pdf">four times as high as for the workforce as a whole</a>.</p>
<p>Intermittent campaigns to persuade autoworkers at nonunion factories in places like <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/sep/10/tesla-workers-union-elon-musk">Fremont, California</a>, and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/06/15/733074989/tennessee-workers-reject-union-at-volkswagen-plant-again">Chattanooga, Tennessee</a>, have <a href="https://www.wardsauto.com/industry-news/if-uaw-doesn-t-change-it-s-toast">failed over the past four decades</a>.</p>
<h2>Employer obstacles</h2>
<p>Many U.S. employers have a long <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315499093-11/human-resource-management-practices-worker-desires-union-representation-jack-fiorito">history of attempting to avoid unionization</a>.</p>
<p>One such tactic is providing nonunion employees with some of the benefits of belonging to a union, such as raises or better benefits, without the payment of union dues. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/hyundai-honda-toyota-wage-increase-united-auto-workers-1349059944c75d7372f53d1ee6cf5cb2">Toyota, Honda, Hyundai</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/subaru-raise-us-plant-worker-wages-light-uaw-deals-with-detroit-automakers-ceo-2023-11-16/">Subaru</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/nissan-motor-hiking-wages-us-auto-plants-after-uaw-deal-2023-11-20/">Nissan all announced plans to increase</a> pay for their U.S. employees soon after the 2023 UAW strike concluded.</p>
<p>Fain calls this wave of raises for nonunion automotive workers the “<a href="https://youtu.be/V3bengdSGjY'">UAW bump</a>,” joking that UAW stands for “you are welcome.” His joke has two meanings: It’s a response to the thanks owed for the increased pay and it’s an invitation for workers employed by those companies to join the union he leads.</p>
<p>The UAW leader also quips that when the union’s new contracts expire in April 2028, it will be negotiating with “<a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/10/30/uaw-ford-shawn-fain-contract-deal">the Big Five or Big Six</a>” instead of just GM, Ford and Stellantis. In other words, he is predicting that the UAW will have won organizing campaigns by then with two or three more of the <a href="https://www.storagecafe.com/blog/top-10-largest-car-manufacturers-in-the-us/">automakers producing the most vehicles in the U.S.</a> – such as Toyota, Honda and Nissan.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/V3bengdSGjY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">This UAW video features media coverage of union president Shawn Fain testifying in Congress and a string of raises for nonunion U.S. autoworkers.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>UAW’s financial status</h2>
<p>In our book, “<a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781003335474/trade-union-finance-marick-masters-raymond-gibney">Trade Union Finance: How Labor Organizations Raise and Spend Money</a>,” we explain that unions remained in relatively strong financial shape from 2006 through 2019 – a period that included the economic upheaval of the Great Recession.</p>
<p>For example, among the sample of 53 national unions whose finances we studied, 49 saw their member-based income from dues and other sources grow by more than 33% during this period.</p>
<p>The UAW’s shrinking ranks led it to raise its dues by 25% in 2014 to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/business/autos/united-auto-workers-union-raises-dues-first-time-47-years-n121586">offset declining member-based income</a>.</p>
<p>The UAW has yet to disclose what it spent on the 2023 strike against the Detroit Three. Based on reported striker numbers and dates, we estimate that it cost the union approximately US$86 million just in payments to workers eligible for <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-are-strike-funds-a-labor-management-relations-expert-explains-213212">$500 weekly payments from its strike fund</a>.</p>
<p>That most likely left the union with nearly $750 million in its strike fund, which held roughly <a href="https://www.fitchratings.com/research/us-public-finance/uaw-strike-will-have-no-near-term-credit-effect-on-us-states-locals-21-09-2023">$825 million before the strike began</a>.</p>
<h2>Financing union organizing</h2>
<p>Organizing workers employed by <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/12/business/tesla-union-uaw-strike/index.html">automakers that resist unions, such as Tesla</a>, can be expensive. </p>
<p>The union has to pay organizers and cover the organizers’ expenses, and it is responsible for the costs of complying with labor law requirements associated with holding union elections. We do not know the exact costs of organizing campaigns or how much unions spend on them. </p>
<p>We do know that the United Auto Workers spent $4.4 million in 2022 to pay its organizers, or 5.6% of the union’s <a href="https://olmsapps.dol.gov/query/orgReport.do?rptId=865078&rptForm=LM2Form">total payroll</a>. This level of expenditure pales in comparison to the more than $45 million the union <a href="https://uaw.org/tag/strike/">spent on strike benefits</a> for its members who went on strike that year – none of whom were employed in the automotive industry.</p>
<p>How can the UAW finance a massive organizing campaign to win over the workers at the likes of Tesla, Honda, Nissan, Subaru, Toyota and Hyundai? We have identified three means of supplementing traditional sources of revenue from dues.</p>
<p><strong>1: Get donations from other labor groups</strong></p>
<p>Unions are free to help out each other through donations made to one another.</p>
<p>One important precedent for this is from the UAW’s earliest days. In 1936, one year after the union got its start, John Lewis, at the time the head of the Committee for Industrial Organization, <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/title/417956">gave the nascent United Auto Workers $100,000</a> – over $2.23 million adjusted for inflation – for its organizing efforts.</p>
<p>Labor unions can easily accept donations because they are <a href="https://blog.candid.org/post/unions-and-their-role-in-the-social-sector/">501(c)(5) nonprofits</a>. This designation means they <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/501(c)(5)">don’t have to pay any federal income tax</a>, although that exemption does not apply to the money they spend on electioneering and lobbying. Unlike charities, which in the U.S. are designated as 501(c)(3) organizations, <a href="https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/other-non-profits/tax-treatment-of-donations-to-section-501c5-organizations">donations to unions are not tax deductible</a> for donors.</p>
<p><strong>2: Team up with other unions</strong></p>
<p>A second approach is for unions to pool their money for organizing another industrial sector. </p>
<p>We’ve found that the United Auto Workers, the United Steelworkers and the International Association of Machinists had a combined $513 million in working capital – money available for them to use as they see fit – in 2022. Some of those funds could help foot the bill for a concerted effort to persuade employees of nonunion automakers to join the union.</p>
<p>And the UAW could tap into these funds to supplement their spending on organizing personnel. </p>
<p><strong>3: Experiment with crowdfunding</strong></p>
<p>Third, rank-and-file members of the United Auto Workers, along with other manufacturing unions, could chip in to cover organizing costs through a <a href="https://theconversation.com/4-new-findings-shed-light-on-crowdfunding-for-charity-161491">crowdfunding campaign</a> by raising money online from donors.</p>
<p>Such a crowdfunding campaign might also draw donations from nonunion autoworkers who favor unionization, or anyone else who wants to see more autoworkers belonging to a union.</p>
<h2>Innovative tactics</h2>
<p>Spending more money on labor organizing will not suffice. The UAW will also need to rely on creativity and innovative thinking.</p>
<p>The challenges involved with winning over nonunion autoworkers will be far more formidable than its task in <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/uaw-pull-out-all-stops-organizing-nonunion-automakers-2023-11-08/">negotiating the 2023 contracts with the Big Three</a>. </p>
<p>We believe that the UAW would be wise to again use the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/10/20/1207367334/the-uaw-strike-is-not-the-first-time-a-union-weaponized-the-element-of-surprise">element of surprise</a> as it did with its 2023 strike against GM, Ford and Stellantis. One key to its success was how it threw the companies off balance by unpredictably ratcheting up the number of facilities where workers had gone on strike.</p>
<p>Fain and his allies are bound to fare better if they again, as they did with the 2023 strike against the Big Three, <a href="https://www.wilx.com/2023/10/11/how-social-media-influences-uaw-strike/">shape the narrative</a> through the deft use of social media. That tactic helped the UAW garner grassroots support and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/labor-unions-auto-workers-poll-b6f0efba4892d1f5d2a829effd514f7d">keep public opinion on its side</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217064/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>While Marick Masters was serving as the director of the Douglas A. Fraser Center for Workplace Issues at Wayne State University from 2009 through 2019, the Center received grants from the Detroit Three's joint training centers with the United Auto Workers to pursue education and research on unions and labor-management relations. These grants were operating strictly within the purview of the university.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ray Gibney does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Wooing those workers will be expensive and require a lot of creativity, since many of them are employed in ‘right-to-work’ states.Marick Masters, Professor of Business and Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Wayne State UniversityRay Gibney, Associate Professor of Management, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2155872023-11-26T20:36:17Z2023-11-26T20:36:17ZHere’s why union support is so high right now<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/heres-why-union-support-is-so-high-right-now" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Over 65,000 teachers in Québec <a href="https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/quebec-teachers-strike-staff-may-be-on-strike-until-christmas-says-union-vice-president-1.6661466">could remain on strike until Christmas</a> if a deal isn’t reached, their union said on Sunday. The warning comes amid widespread labour unrest in the province, including nearly <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/nearly-570000-of-quebecs-public-sector-workers-are-on-strike-thursday">570,000 workers on strike at the same time</a> last week.</p>
<p>These collective actions are on the heels of the recent “<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/union-labour-summer-of-strikes-1.6970861">summer of strikes</a>,” that saw a number of labour actions take place, including the <a href="https://theconversation.com/actors-are-demanding-that-hollywood-catch-up-with-technological-changes-in-a-sequel-to-a-1960-strike-209829">Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strikes</a>, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-uaw-unions-tough-bargaining-strategy-is-working-214679">United Auto Workers’ strike</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/starbucks-workers-over-150-stores-strike-over-pride-decor-row-2023-06-23/">a number of Starbucks strikes</a>. In Canada, <a href="https://theconversation.com/b-c-labour-dispute-its-time-for-an-industrial-inquiry-commission-into-ports-and-automation-210779">port workers in British Columbia</a>, <a href="https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/workers-at-ontario-s-public-broadcaster-walk-off-the-job-1.6527764">workers from Ontario’s public broadcaster,</a> and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/sj-inside-workers-agreement-1.6990304">city workers in Saint John</a> also held strikes.</p>
<p>One of the reasons strikes seem to have increased in popularity and publicity is the record high support for workers’ unions. According to a <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/398303/approval-labor-unions-highest-point-1965.aspx">recent Gallup poll</a>, 71 per cent of Americans are supportive of labour unions — the highest rate since 1965. A recent <a href="https://angusreid.org/unions-strike-labour-canada-ndp-conservatives-liberals/">Angus Reid survey</a> found three-in-five Canadians believe unions have had a positive impact for workers.</p>
<p>Why is this support so high now? <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Business/technologies-helping-shape-surge-worker-strikes-us/story?id=102994468">Some have argued</a> that worsening working conditions, wages falling out of step with inflation and the increasing use of artificial intelligence across industries are contributing to workers’ collective action. </p>
<p>However, this is only part of the picture. More important than these conditions are the workers’ <em>perceptions</em> of these conditions. The rise in union support may be better explained by the general rise in people’s acknowledgement of their own disadvantages, and their negative emotional reactions to that disadvantage.</p>
<h2>Importance of perception</h2>
<p>Research shows that recognizing one’s disadvantage, coupled with experiencing an emotional reaction to it — usually anger — is an important predictor of taking part in collective actions like protesting, striking or joining a union. This is true <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1177/1088868311430825">even when accounting for objective measures of disadvantage</a>, like social class, income and education. </p>
<p>When it comes to support for unions specifically, a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/27767155">1991 study found</a> people’s feelings about their perceived social status were more important in predicting union support than their objective social standing, which is determined by factors like income, education and class. In other words, people’s perceptions determined union support.</p>
<p>This perspective also explains why union support hasn’t risen in times when working conditions have worsened. The years following the 2008 recession, for example, brought about many labour issues, including <a href="https://www.kansascityfed.org/Jackson%20Hole/documents/4547/2014vonWachter.pdf">widespread unemployment</a>, <a href="https://u.demog.berkeley.edu/%7Ejrw/Biblio/Eprints/PRB/files/65.1unitedstates.pdf">declining household wages</a> and <a href="https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/podcast/knowledge-at-wharton-podcast/great-recession-american-dream/">increased levels of temporary and precarious work</a>. </p>
<p>Despite this, <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/398303/approval-labor-unions-highest-point-1965.aspx">union support among Americans was at a historical low</a> around that time. While no statistics exist for the Canadian context, <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.18740/S4M887">evidence suggests</a> unions were equally unpopular in Canada after the Great Recession. </p>
<h2>The COVID-19 pandemic’s role</h2>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly impacted how we view our lives. Recent studies suggest people are now <a href="https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/pandemics-make-us-more-averse-inequality">more aware of the inequalities present in our societies</a> and are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.jesp.2022.104400">more willing to do something about it</a>, compared to the pre-COVID era. </p>
<p>An awareness of the unjust systems that influence our behaviours has been shown to <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1177/1088868311430825">be a prerequisite for the anger</a> that drives collective action. Essentially, the more we recognize injustice, the <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1080/00224545.1987.9713692">more likely we are to engage in collective action</a>.</p>
<p>The height of the COVID-19 pandemic coincided with several union strikes that reveal this pattern. For instance, the <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/the-pandemic-has-caused-a-surprising-rebound-for-the-unions-participation-is-now-higher-than/article_04de56b9-3a88-539c-94ef-c1b1f68793d6.html">2020 Dominion grocery store workers’ strikes in Newfoundland</a> were driven by a growing awareness of the disparities between top executives, who earned millions during the pandemic, and front-line workers who saw little to no wage increases. </p>
<p>Although this divide <a href="https://policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2022/01/Another%20year%20in%20paradise.pdf">had been widening for years</a>, the pandemic accentuated it. <a href="https://nursesunions.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/a_time_of_fear_possamai_final_book_digital.pdf">Union statements during the strikes</a> emphasized that the issues faced by workers were exposed by the pandemic, rather than being created by it. </p>
<p>The pandemic has helped create an environment where workers are more likely to feel disadvantaged and angry. Until public perception and awareness of inequality changes, we will likely continue to see an increased number of strikes and other forms of collective action. </p>
<h2>What should employers do?</h2>
<p>Employers have a crucial role to play in all this. If they wish to avoid their workers taking collective action against them, they should demonstrate their support of their employees by attending to their needs. Issues like <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-businesses-can-best-help-employees-disconnect-from-work-174522">work-life balance</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/employers-need-to-prioritize-employee-mental-health-if-they-want-to-attract-new-talent-205738">mental health support</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/diversity-in-the-workplace-isnt-enough-businesses-need-to-work-toward-inclusion-194136">diversity and inclusion</a> are top of mind for employees.</p>
<p>When employees’ needs are met, they are less likely to perceive disadvantages in the workplace and harbour resentment. A <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S321689">recent study found</a> that employees who believed they were being fairly paid for positive workplace behaviours — like co-operating with others and coming in to work early — felt less resentment towards those they considered more advantaged. </p>
<p>Effective communication with workers, fostering participative leadership and encouraging co-operation between workers have also been shown to <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1177/08863680122098298">reduce angry feelings</a> stemming from an employee’s negative workplace comparisons. </p>
<p>These approaches work because they encourage constructive solutions to employee issues. In the end, the link between people’s perceptions of their own lives and their support for unions highlights just how important it is for employers to take their employees’ needs into account.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215587/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nabhan Refaie does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The rise in union support can be explained by the growing recognition people are having of their own disadvantages, and the anger they feel about it.Nabhan Refaie, PhD Candidate in Management (Organizational Behaviour), University of GuelphLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2173412023-11-13T16:26:27Z2023-11-13T16:26:27ZLevelling the playing field: The case for a federal ‘anti-scab’ law<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/levelling-the-playing-field-the-case-for-a-federal-anti-scab-law" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The federal government has just <a href="https://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/bill/C-58/first-reading">introduced Bill C-58</a>, its much anticipated <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/10081053/canada-anti-scab-legislation/">“anti-scab” legislation</a>. If adopted, the law will prohibit the use of replacement workers in the event of a strike or lockout in any federally regulated industry.</p>
<p>The legislation will also require the parties to negotiate a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/anti-scab-labour-federally-regulated-workplaces-1.7023020">maintenance of activities agreement</a> in advance of a labour dispute to allow for the undertaking of maintenance work to protect the integrity and safety of the workplace.</p>
<p>The bill, a product of the Liberal and NDP <a href="https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2022/03/22/delivering-canadians-now">confidence-and-supply agreement</a>, represents the first time a federal government has committed to an anti-scab law.</p>
<p><a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8717920/ndp-unions-liberals-strikes-anti-scab-law/">Unions have long</a> <a href="https://canadianlabour.ca/canadas-unions-welcome-anti-scab-legislation/">advocated for a ban</a> on replacement workers, arguing their use unduly shifts power to employers and gives the boss an unfair advantage in collective bargaining. </p>
<p>In particular, union leaders justify the need for a ban by pointing to instances where employers chose to <a href="https://www.unifor.org/news/all-news/why-we-need-anti-scab-legislation">lock out</a> workers and “starve them out” while continuing to operate with scab labour. </p>
<p>Business organizations, on the other hand, frame their opposition to anti-scab laws by focusing on the potential for economic disruption. They argue that a ban on replacement workers would give unions <a href="https://torontosun.com/news/national/urgent-need-to-rethink-labour-laws-after-b-c-port-strike-cfib">too much power</a>, <a href="https://www.cfib-fcei.ca/en/media/a-ban-on-replacement-workers-is-a-threat-to-small-businesses-and-the-economy">threaten the survival of small businesses</a> and make Canada <a href="https://www.iedm.org/uploaded/pdf/janv05_en.pdf">less competitive</a>. </p>
<h2>Assessing the arguments</h2>
<p>Making sense of these competing perspectives can be tricky because there is no expert consensus on the economic effects of anti-scab laws. The studies that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-232X.1996.tb00405.x">do exist</a> offer contradictory evidence based on <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227383030_The_Laws_of_Unintended_Consequence_The_Effect_of_Labour_Legislation_on_Wages_and_Strikes">different statistical methods</a>, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/cpp.35.1.99">assumptions, time spans</a> and the inclusion or exclusion of certain sectors of the economy. </p>
<p>Opponents of the legislation tend to selectively rely on <a href="https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/economic-effects-of-banning-temporary-replacement-workers.pdf">corporate-funded research</a> by right-wing think tanks to make the case that a ban on scab labour will drive away business and wreak havoc more generally. </p>
<p>For example, a <a href="https://medicinehatnews.com/commentary/opinions/2022/11/17/for-what-its-worth-anti-scab-legislation-gives-advantage-to-unions-they-shouldnt-have/">common argument</a> is that if employers can’t use replacement workers, businesses may not be able to operate during a labour dispute and will lose revenue as a result. This outcome would theoretically jeopardize the business and the future job security of the striking workers. </p>
<p>The reality, however, is that <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/majority-of-liberal-mps-join-conservatives-to-vote-down-anti-scab-bill/article1072069/">no union leader</a> is interested in negotiating employers out of business or putting the jobs of their members at risk.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1722744670663455093"}"></div></p>
<p>Despite <a href="https://chamber.ca/news/statement-from-the-canadian-chamber-of-commerce-regarding-anti-replacement-worker-legislation/">corporate objections</a> to the contrary, anti-scab laws can play an integral role in improving union-management relations. At some point, almost all work stoppages end, and workers return to their jobs. </p>
<p>The resentment caused by the use of scab labour lingers, however, poisoning labour relations and leading to <a href="https://www.hrreporter.com/news/hr-news/the-aftermath-of-replacement-workers-can-linger-long-after-the-strike-is-over/310485">lower workplace morale</a>. This is especially true in the case of contentious labour disputes where the use of replacement workers triggered <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/giant-mine-explosion">picket line violence</a> <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/frustration-grows-as-videotron-strike-continues-in-quebec-1.312994">or vandalism</a>.</p>
<p>Such incidents are far <a href="https://www.unifor.org/sites/default/files/documents/fairness_on_the_line_final%20web.pdf">less likely</a> to occur if scab labour is taken out of the equation. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/striking-a-balance-how-the-law-regulates-picket-lines-213111">Striking a balance: How the law regulates picket lines</a>
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<h2>Negotiated settlements</h2>
<p>The other benefit of an anti-scab law is that it would force employers to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/point-counterpoint-anti-scab-smith-1.5531736">focus on reaching negotiated settlements</a> rather than strategizing over how to best undermine and antagonize union members exercising their right to strike. </p>
<p>This levels the playing field and brings the focus back to the bargaining table where deals are made.</p>
<p>The business lobby’s argument that a ban on replacement workers would <a href="https://www.simcoe.com/business/federal-private-member-s-bill-tips-the-scales-toward-unions-in-labour-negotiations-barrie-chamber/article_7312d7ab-1837-54fe-8a16-aed1e99228c4.html">render unions more difficult</a> in bargaining is belied by the fact that anti-scab legislation at the provincial level has not produced “strike-happy” unions. </p>
<p>Québec and British Columbia have had legislative bans on replacement workers in provincially regulated industries for decades. <a href="http://www.justlabour.yorku.ca/volume13/pdfs/02_savage_butovsky_press.pdf">Neither jurisdiction</a> experienced escalating wage demands, dramatic increases in strike activity, or economic collapse as a result. </p>
<p>Why then should we expect different outcomes as a result of a federal anti-scab law? </p>
<h2>Politics of labour law reform</h2>
<p>It’s worth remembering that corporations have <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/highlights-in-canadian-labour-history-1.850282">resisted virtually every single improvement</a> to workers’ rights since the 1800s. </p>
<p>This includes opposition to union recognition, the right to strike, the shorter work week and improved employment standards. Given this history, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the business lobby is keen to defeat or water down Bill C-58.</p>
<p>At a <a href="https://www.cpac.ca/episode?id=09e7f3fe-e565-449d-b458-d30d7d5795b4">recent news conference</a>, Federal Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan indicated the law would not take effect until 18 months after receiving Royal Assent. </p>
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<p>That’s an eternity in politics and provides the business lobby with ample time to <a href="https://thetyee.ca/News/2023/11/13/Unions-Get-More-Power-Replacement-Worker-Ban/">change the government’s mind or pressure it to run out the clock</a> in advance of the next federal election. </p>
<p>In the meantime, unions and their allies are not sitting idle. We can expect unions to continue <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230918460175/en/Demonstration-With-the-NDP-and-CLC-in-Support-of-Anti-Scab-Legislation">organizing rallies</a> <a href="https://canadianlabour.ca/campaigns/we-need-pro-worker-legislation/">and actions</a> to pressure the government to deliver on its commitment.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.socialistproject.ca/relay/relay17_harden.pdf">Previous attempts</a> to win anti-scab legislation through opposition-led bills have usually faltered because Liberal MPs got cold feet and switched their votes on second or third reading under pressure from the business community. </p>
<p>The dynamics are different this time as a result of the confidence-and-supply agreement with the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-ndp-turns-60-its-never-truly-been-the-political-arm-of-organized-labour-161964">union-friendly NDP</a> and the government’s desire to use the legislation as a wedge issue to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/poilievre-caucus-speech-canadians-hurting-1.6580001">undermine recent Conservative efforts</a> to gain support from blue-collar union members.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pierre-poilievre-is-popular-among-union-members-whats-it-really-all-about-201547">Pierre Poilievre is popular among union members. What's it really all about?</a>
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<p>Whether the legislation will serve that purpose remains an open question.</p>
<p>But that should not distract from the policy goal of reforming labour laws in ways that promote collective bargaining, protect workers’ rights and level the playing field between unions and employers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217341/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Larry Savage receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.</span></em></p>Unions have long advocated for a ban on replacement workers, arguing their use unduly shifts power to employers and gives the boss an unfair advantage in collective bargaining.Larry Savage, Professor, Labour Studies, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2158422023-11-09T17:25:52Z2023-11-09T17:25:52ZTrade unions in the UK and US have become more powerful despite political interference and falling memberships<p>In September 2023, Joe Biden became the first sitting US president to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-us-canada-66917039">join strikers</a> on a picket line. He told car workers that they “deserve a significant raise and other benefits”.</p>
<p>Even more surprisingly perhaps, those same workers – in a dispute with three of America’s biggest car manufacturers – were later <a href="https://apnews.com/article/labor-union-auto-workers-trump-strike-dfcb805fd4e749b13aaf827e1463da73">praised by Donald Trump</a>. Meanwhile in the UK, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/sir-keir-starmer-pledges-to-repeal-any-new-anti-strike-laws-in-first-big-speech-of-the-year-as-rail-union-warns-legislation-could-lead-to-longer-strife-12780233">repeal anti-strike laws</a>, and “unequivocally” <a href="https://labourlist.org/2022/10/starmer-tells-tuc-congress-i-support-the-right-to-strike-unequivocally/">support the right to strike</a>. </p>
<p>It seems that ongoing – and largely successful – strike action in both the UK and the US has forced political leaders to take trade unions more seriously than they have for decades. </p>
<p>There is a shifting balance of power towards the unions, with employers increasingly agreeing settlements in the strikers’ favour. In the UK, key workers in sectors such as <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-66822398">education</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/sep/18/doctors-strike-to-disrupt-care-unlike-anything-seen-before-warn-nhs-officials">healthcare</a> and <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/train-strikes-full-list-of-dates-and-lines-affected-as-rail-and-tube-action-announced-12969794">transport</a> continue to strike in pursuit of better pay and conditions – no doubt encouraged by the successes they have seen elsewhere. </p>
<p>For example, in October last year, striking barristers <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63198892">received a 15% pay rise</a>, while London bus drivers ended their industrial action after accepting a pay deal <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/long-running-london-bus-drivers-dispute-ends-after-18-pay-deal-12810250">worth 18%</a> in February 2023. Then in July, Royal Mail workers concluded a three-year dispute <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-66170432">after receiving a 10% rise </a>.</p>
<p>In the US, a well-publicised strike which stopped production of popular TV shows and films <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/25/business/wga-writers-strike-deal-explained.html">ended in success</a> for the Writers Guild of America, bolstering <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2023-11-06/actors-strike-sag-aftra-amptp-negotiations">action</a> by striking actors who have now agreed a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-67364587">“tentative” deal</a> with Hollywood studios. </p>
<h2>Low numbers and high barriers</h2>
<p>That successful strike action is taking place at such a size and scale is remarkable considering the various hurdles still being faced by unions in both countries. </p>
<p>UK unions, once powerful enough to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/13619468808580954">bring down a government</a> (as when Edward Heath succumbed to the National Union of Mineworkers in 1974), have faced an <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/irj.12349">increasingly restrictive environment</a>. This culminated in <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-consecutive-conservative-governments-destroyed-union-rights-a-timeline-of-the-uks-anti-strike-laws-since-the-1970s-198178">2016 legislation</a> which established high legal barriers for strike action, such as requiring a 50% turnout, or placing tight restrictions on where and how pickets can be conducted. </p>
<p>In the US, striking rights are weaker still, with the balance of power overwhelmingly favouring employers. Every single state (except for Montana) is an “at will” state, meaning that an employer can effectively dismiss an employee at any time, for any reason (if the decision is not illegal, such as being discriminatory). </p>
<p>Membership levels also paint a depressing picture for trade unions. In the UK, just <a href="https://www.cipd.org/uk/knowledge/factsheets/trade-unions-factsheet/#membershiplevels">22.3% of workers</a> were part of a union in 2022. In the US, the proportion is 10.1%, and <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/398303/approval-labor-unions-highest-point-1965.aspx">84% of households</a> do not include a single union member. </p>
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<p>For younger workers, with no memory or experience of what unions have achieved in the past, the numbers are even lower. Only <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/union2.pdf">4.4%</a> of US workers aged 16 to 24 are members of a union, and in the UK it’s just <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1158789/Trade_Union_Membership_UK_1995-2022_Statistical_Bulletin.pdf">3.7%</a>. </p>
<p>Lower levels of union membership results in <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1024258916673533">less bargaining power</a>, and therefore a weakening of employment rights and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/000368499324615">job security</a> – which again makes the recent levels of industrial action a surprise. </p>
<h2>Striking a blow</h2>
<p>Falling membership also has a direct impact on the number of working days lost to industrial action, with substantial declines in recent decades. The US saw a peak of 52.8 million <a href="https://www.bls.gov/web/wkstp/annual-listing.htm">lost working days</a> in 1970, and a low of 200,000 in 2014. </p>
<p>In the UK, 29.5 million <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/timeseries/bbfw/lms">working days lost</a> in 1979 went down to as little as 170,000 in 2015. </p>
<p>But this vital metric of successful unionisation is also changing, with the number of days lost rising to <a href="https://www.bls.gov/web/wkstp/annual-listing.htm">2.2 million</a> in the US, and <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/timeseries/bbfw/lms">2.5 million</a> in the UK in 2022. </p>
<p>This suggests unions are becoming much more effective at galvanising the members they do have. An increase in the number of lost working days implies that workers’ feel like they can take industrial action, and that such action will actually make a difference. </p>
<p>This snowball effect will only embolden unions further, and aggrieved workers will feel more confident about standing up to their employers. </p>
<p>The fact that workers seem to be feeling empowered despite low numbers and an increase in the barriers to strike action, begs an important question about what is behind the current resurgence.</p>
<p>It may be down to the cost-of-living crisis spurring strained workers to demand <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/focus/20230201-uk-workers-on-strike-to-demand-higher-pay-amid-cost-of-living-crisis">above-inflation pay rises</a>. Or it may be thanks to unemployment levels being at their <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/08/03/strikes-2023-summer-unions/">lowest in nearly 50 years</a>, providing substantial bargaining power and leverage. </p>
<p>Many employers would struggle to find replacement workers at the moment, especially highly skilled ones, like those in the car industry. Unions know this, and therefore feel more comfortable agitating for better terms and conditions. </p>
<p>Responding to the unions’ apparent new levels of confidence, the UK government recently <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/strike-laws-to-be-passed-to-protect-vital-public-services-over-christmas">introduced legislation</a> designed to force some strikers back to work. Meanwhile Labour, which receives substantial funding from unions, is seeking to walk a tightrope of pleasing both workers and employers as it seeks a broad electoral coalition. </p>
<p>Both parties need to accept that trade unionism is experiencing a revival few thought possible – and one that shows no signs of stopping.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215842/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven Daniels is a member of the University and College Union (UCU).</span></em></p>The picket lines have brought surprising levels of success.Steven Daniels, Lecturer in Law and Politics, Edge Hill UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2164992023-10-27T15:19:42Z2023-10-27T15:19:42ZWhat the anti-woke backlash against liberal feminism misses about causes like the gender pay gap<p>This week, thousands of women across <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/23/icelands-first-full-day-womens-strike-in-48-years-aims-to-close-pay-gap">Iceland</a> went on strike to demand greater gender equality. That’s right, Iceland: the country that has <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/06/global-gender-gap-parity/">ranked highest</a> in the world for gender equality for the past 14 years in a row. </p>
<p>So even in places such as Iceland that have focused on narrowing the gender pay gap, women are still concerned about how housework and caregiving falls on their shoulders, is undervalued in society and impacts their careers. </p>
<p>Indeed, this is <a href="https://kvennasogusafn.is/index.php?page=womens-day-off">Iceland’s seventh</a> <em>kvennaverkfall</em> (<a href="https://kvennafri.is/en/womens-strike-2023/">women’s strike</a>). The first, in 1975, saw <a href="https://apnews.com/article/iceland-women-strike-equal-pay-970669466116a2b1a5673a8737089d46">90% of the country’s women</a> stop working, cleaning and minding the kids to <a href="https://kvennasogusafn.is/index.php?page=womens-day-off-1975#:%7E:text=A%20flyer%20in%20English%20from%20the%20day.">draw attention to gender inequality</a>.</p>
<p>The country passed a law guaranteeing equal rights the following year, but the gender pay gap <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/06/global-gender-gap-parity/">still stands at about 10%</a>.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Footage from Iceland’s first women’s strike in 1975.</span></figcaption>
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<p>My <a href="https://www.cubsucc.com/faculty-directory/dr-lauren-bari/">research</a> explores how sex and parenthood can result in wage gaps, among other outcomes. This is not just a simple comparison of male and female earnings; it’s symptomatic of wider societal structures in which women often end up poorer than men. </p>
<p>But the topic of gender pay gaps has increasingly been the subject of scepticism. I’ve recently heard it described as “<a href="https://twitter.com/jordanbpeterson/status/1633230507193384963?lang=en">a radical leftist lie</a>”, “<a href="https://youtu.be/HSvLnlX-VG4">a crazy thing to argue</a>”, and not to mention “<a href="https://twitter.com/GrantCardone/status/1680249117224648708">a myth</a>”. I try not to take it personally. </p>
<p>Feminists and feminism have always been <a href="https://sites.uni.edu/palczews/postcard_archive.html">the subject of ridicule</a>, blamed for everything from the breakdown of the family to <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/01/30/whats-the-matter-with-men">a crisis of masculinity</a>. </p>
<p>Whether or not the word “feminist” makes you wrinkle your nose, the movement has achieved a great deal in the century or more since it began. Feminism should continue to evolve, to keep protecting and promoting the rights of women now and in the future. </p>
<h2>The rise of liberal feminism</h2>
<p>Because of my interest in wage gaps and labour market outcomes, you might put me in the “liberal” feminist camp. This strand of feminism has traditionally been concerned with equal opportunities, legal, political and economic equality and the promotion of more egalitarian gender roles within households. </p>
<p>These concerns have helped to usher in policy and legislative change since feminism’s “<a href="https://www.gale.com/primary-sources/womens-studies/collections/second-wave-feminism">second wave</a>” in the 1960s and 1970s. </p>
<p>The type of feminism that developed tended to work within prevailing structures and systems, rather than trying to overthrow them, and so aligned itself with <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/neoliberalism.asp">dominant neoliberal value systems</a> that developed in the late 20th century. </p>
<p>By its early 2000s zenith, the liberal feminist message of freedom and empowerment, typified by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cosmopolitan-magazine">Cosmopolitan</a> magazine and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159206/">Sex and the City</a>, chimed with a broader message of individuality in a free market. </p>
<p>The realities of motherhood, caring and family - key aspects of the second wave - were increasingly disregarded, the assumption being that care could be outsourced or that men would take up caring roles.</p>
<p>While still forming the basis of gender equality policy at national and EU/regional level, what are perceived as liberal feminist values have been falling out of fashion with the wider public. </p>
<p>In line with a wider “anti-woke” backlash, criticism of liberal feminism as unworkable, elitist or irrelevant is coming from across the political and ideological spectrum.</p>
<h2>Criticism of liberal feminism</h2>
<p>The manosphere has been described as “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2056305119872953">loosely unified by an anti-feminist worldview</a>”. Growing numbers of social media personalities promote notions of masculinity centred around strict, often toxic, gender roles based on female inferiority. </p>
<p>There are even calls for the rollback of basic freedoms, such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHs7p6o5oBo">women’s right to vote</a>. Such an extreme withdrawal of rights is unlikely, but these voices and their millions of followers should not be ignored. </p>
<p>The popularity of “<a href="https://eu.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2023/07/14/trad-wife-meaning-controversy/70407456007/">trad</a>” ideas online (traditional sex roles within families) is not necessarily aligned with the exaggerated hyper-masculinity of the manopshere. </p>
<p>However, it reflects a reignited trend towards conservatism or at least a rejection of the perceived progressive attitudes to gender equality of the last two decades. The rejection of feminist values coming from more hardline or conservative forms of religiosity add further weight to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277539523000079">growing anti-progressive sentiment</a>. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, a new wave of both radical and more conservative or “<a href="https://swiftpress.com/book/feminism-against-progress/">reactionary</a>” feminists believe liberal feminism has lost its way. The freedom-first, choice-based narrative, some say, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDU3A_MU7rQ">undermines women’s material interests</a> by championing an “elite” set of values that commodify the bodies of poor women, devalue care work and ignore important differences between the sexes.</p>
<p>They argue liberal feminism is <a href="https://www.dubraybooks.ie/product/feminism-for-women-9781472132628">too mainstream</a>, too in bed with the system and too sidetracked by relative trivialities such as microagressions, boardroom representation and, yes, the gender pay gap.</p>
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<img alt="Woman carrying a tote bag that says march like a girl." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556191/original/file-20231026-15-fnheng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556191/original/file-20231026-15-fnheng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556191/original/file-20231026-15-fnheng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556191/original/file-20231026-15-fnheng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556191/original/file-20231026-15-fnheng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556191/original/file-20231026-15-fnheng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556191/original/file-20231026-15-fnheng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Recently, feminist messaging sometimes takes a more commercial direction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/girl-tote-bag-claiming-womens-day-2064158204">Laura Libran/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>The empowerment message of liberal feminism seen in “smash the patriarchy” tote bags and “girls just want to have FUNdamental rights” t-shirts rings almost embarrassingly corporate – out of touch with the more complex issues facing women and girls today.</p>
<h2>Reclaiming feminism</h2>
<p>I think it’s time to step back and reclaim feminism’s original purpose and ask how can it contribute to positive change in a tumultuous world. </p>
<p>In Europe at least, feminism has brought us <a href="https://www.eurodev.com/blog/maternity-leave-europe#:%7E:text=Maternity%20leave%20in%20Europe%20is,the%20national%20sick%20pay%20level.">maternity provision</a>, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/gender-pay-gap-reporting-guidance-for-employers/overview#:%7E:text=Equal%20pay%20means%20that%20men,holiday%20entitlement">equal pay</a> and drastically expanded opportunities outside of the home. </p>
<p>Women’s <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/global-education?insight=the-gender-gap-in-school-attendance-has-closed-across-most-of-the-world#key-insights:%7E:text=of%20the%20world-,The%20gender%20gap%20in%20school%20attendance,-has%20closed%20across">education levels have increased</a> globally and (despite a few Tik Toks promoting the virtues of “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/23/the-bimbo-is-back-and-as-a-feminist-i-couldnt-be-more-delighted">bimbofication</a>”) women will continue to want to be educated, have careers and contribute to public life.</p>
<p>Liberal feminists care about women’s economic independence and, in lieu of some massive structural shift in how our societies are run, money still matters. Women across the social and economic spectrum still grapple with issues of work, care and family. </p>
<p>Feminism still has a role to play in analysing these issues and developing policy solutions that make life easier for women and families. </p>
<p>The gender pay gap is not the most important issue facing women, but as a symbol of wider issues it’s worth addressing. Yes, liberal feminism has some soul-searching to do. It ignores changes in the zeitgeist at its peril. But in the rush to embrace something more radical, let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216499/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lauren Bari does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Longstanding concerns like the gender wage gap remain important but second-wave feminism must listen and evolve to continue to protect and promote women’s concerns.Lauren Bari, Lecturer in Management, University College CorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2158642023-10-19T18:39:11Z2023-10-19T18:39:11ZHealth care workers gain 21% wage increase in pending agreement with Kaiser Permanente after historic strike<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554397/original/file-20231017-19-xxi7c6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=89%2C99%2C3234%2C2019&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Striking Kaiser Permanente workers hold signs as they march on Oct. 6, 2023, in Vallejo, Calif. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/striking-kaiser-permanente-workers-hold-signs-as-they-march-news-photo/1720876420?adppopup=true">Justin Sullivan/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/13/business/kaiser-permanente-strike-deal-reached/index.html">reached a tentative agreement</a> with its employer on a new four-year contract on Oct. 13, 2023. They agreed following the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-thousands-of-kaiser-health-care-workers-on-strike-5-questions-answered-214926">largest documented strike of U.S. health care workers on record</a>, which involved more than 75,000 workers in several states and the District of Columbia. A majority of the <a href="https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/kaiser-permanente-unions-tentative-agreement-bargaining-sessions/696611/">unions’ 85,000 members will need to approve the deal</a> for it to become final. The <a href="https://go.seiu-uhw.org/l/45502/2023-10-13/9517nl">voting began on Oct. 18</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>The contract’s terms will make Kaiser “able to deliver on our mission of providing high quality, affordable and accessible health care to our members,” <a href="https://calmatters.org/health/2023/10/kaiser-permanente-union-strikes-california-contract/">Kaiser Vice President and Chief of Human Resources Greg Holmes said</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>The Conversation asked <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ZuwzOscAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Michael McQuarrie</a>, an Arizona State University sociologist who directs its Center for Work and Democracy, to explain what’s in the settlement and why it matters.</em> </p>
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<h2>What are the terms of the settlement?</h2>
<p>Kaiser workers will get a <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/10/13/1205788228/kaiser-permanente-strike-contract-deal-reached">21% raise over the life of the contract</a>, with a 6% salary increase in October 2023, and 5% in October 2024, 2025 and 2026.</p>
<p>The contract notably also includes a new hourly minimum wage for Kaiser workers in California, which will increase to US$25 by 2026. That pay level will be required of all California health care employers by that time, however, because <a href="https://calmatters.org/health/2023/10/california-minimum-wage-health-care-law/">California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a new law</a> to that effect.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/who-we-are/labor-relations/new-agreement-with-the-coalition-of-kaiser-permanente-unions">other states, the contractual minimum hourly wage will be $23</a> once all of the raises called for in this new contract are phased in.</p>
<p>The contract also calls for some improvements to benefits, such as <a href="https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/who-we-are/labor-relations/new-agreement-with-the-coalition-of-kaiser-permanente-unions">larger performance-related bonuses</a>. The final settlement reportedly includes a <a href="https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/providers/largest-healthcare-worker-strike-us-history-scheduled-begin-wednesday-across-kaiser">guaranteed performance bonus of at least $1,500</a> if Kaiser meets financial benchmarks and patient health benchmarks.</p>
<p>Bonuses for working shifts that include hours after 5:30 p.m. would rise to $3.25 an hour, I’ve learned from workers involved in the negotiations. That means if this contract is ratified, these evening and night shifts would see an increase from <a href="https://www.seiu1199nw.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/KPWA-SWEA-2019-2023.pdf">$2 in the 2019-2023 contract</a>. Without that monetary incentive, workers usually try to get more desirable daytime shifts, increasing turnover and exacerbating staffing gaps at night.</p>
<p>The new contract would also leave in place restrictions on Kaiser’s ability to outsource or subcontract union jobs, which were <a href="https://www.unioncoalition.org/80000-workers-kaiser-permanente-reach-tentative-contract-settlement/">included in the prior contract</a> that Kaiser and the unions agreed upon in 2019.</p>
<p>And the coalition of unions has agreed to streamline the process for internal bidding on open positions to help Kaiser resolve staffing shortfalls. In addition, the contract includes provisions for training new health care workers that the union had sought. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The deal will set a minimum hourly wage of $25 in California, where many of Kaiser Permanente’s facilities are located, and $23 in other states.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why did workers feel the strike was necessary, and did it achieve their aims?</h2>
<p>My contacts within the union told me that they had the impression that Kaiser had essentially withdrawn from negotiations in the weeks leading up to the strike – although its management team did return to the table at the eleventh hour before the strike began. The bargaining <a href="https://www.unioncoalition.org/2022-psp/">officially began in April 2023</a>.</p>
<p>The unions in the coalition had rejected the terms Kaiser was offering at that point, which included lower wages and plans to expand its reliance <a href="https://www.unioncoalition.org/2023-agreement-expires/">on subcontracted workers</a>. Kaiser also never responded to the coalition’s last economic proposal until the <a href="https://www.unioncoalition.org/2023-economic-proposal/">last-minute negotiations</a> that failed to avert a strike.</p>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-thousands-of-kaiser-health-care-workers-on-strike-5-questions-answered-214926">strained relations between Kaiser’s managers and workers</a> to unprecedented levels. United Healthcare Workers West/SEIU, the coalition’s largest union, <a href="https://seiuuhw.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/2022-04_Report_Staffing-Survey-10.1_DIGITAL.pdf">surveyed its members in 2022</a> and found a heavily stressed workforce who felt that management was unresponsive to their concerns. <a href="https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/nursing-facility-staffing-shortages-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/">Numerous academic studies</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.jradnu.2022.02.007">support these findings</a>. </p>
<p>Kaiser has been seeking for months to <a href="https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/who-we-are/labor-relations/kaiser-permanente-hiring-10000-new-staff-members-for-coalition-jobs">hire 10,000 new workers by the end of 2023</a> to fill vacancies that have led to understaffing and put stress on its workforce.</p>
<p>That Kaiser’s engagement in talks with the unions increased after the strike suggests that the unions’ actions made a big difference. So does the fact that Kaiser ultimately agreed to terms that were closer to the unions’ original demands on wages, benefits and subcontracting once workers went on strike than it had previously said it would accept.</p>
<h2>How have workers responded to the proposed settlement?</h2>
<p>Union members have to vote in favor of ratification for this contract to go into effect. Leaders of the strike and workers who were involved in the negotiations have told me they’re optimistic that this will happen. Voting <a href="https://www.seiu-uhw.org/press/more-than-85000-kaiser-permanente-healthcare-workers-win-landmark-new-contract/">began on Oct. 18</a> and should <a href="https://go.seiu-uhw.org/l/45502/2023-10-13/9517nl">conclude by Nov. 3</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215864/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael McQuarrie works with and does research on unions and other organizations. The Center for Work and Democracy has received funding from United Healthcare Workers West/SEIU, which is part of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions.</span></em></p>Beyond higher wages and improved benefits, the terms of the Kaiser settlement would ensure better staffing, which the unions have argued is critical for providing quality patient care.Michael McQuarrie, Director of the Center for Work and Democracy, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2146792023-10-06T12:31:51Z2023-10-06T12:31:51ZWhy the UAW union’s tough bargaining strategy is working<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552177/original/file-20231004-27-7fq66x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5842%2C3665&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">UAW union members picket in front of a Stellantis distribution center on Sept. 25, 2023, in Carrollton, Texas.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/PicturesoftheWeek-NorthAmerica-PhotoGallery/c1ac21c35db54e70b1f39af3b7653bc2/photo?boardId=37be9465fcce45d283d5431cccb20a6a&st=boards&mediaType=audio,photo,video,graphic&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=455&currentItemNo=8">AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The United Auto Workers union isn’t backing down as it <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/09/20/1200357955/uaw-big-3-strike-auto-shawn-fain">bargains for more compensation and better benefits</a> in its new contracts with General Motors, Ford and Stellantis. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/05/business/economy/shawn-fain-uaw-profile.html">Under the deft leadership</a> of its <a href="https://theconversation.com/historic-uaw-election-is-bringing-profound-union-leadership-changes-and-chances-of-more-strikes-and-higher-car-prices-200335">president, Shawn Fain</a>, and other officials elected in March 2023, the union has thrown the three companies off balance with a strike that began on Sept. 15 – the minute its prior contracts expired.</p>
<p>As of Oct. 6, the number of UAW members on strike from their Big Three jobs <a href="https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2023/10/02/uaw-strike-week-3-what-we-know-as-25k-workers-picket-big-three-talks-persist/">stood at 25,000</a> after a gradual climb – meaning that 1 in 6 of the union’s nearly 150,000 autoworkers were on the picket lines instead of going to work.</p>
<p>I’m a labor and business scholar who has studied the <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C23&q=marick+masters&btnG">history of UAW collective bargaining with the Detroit Three</a>. I’ve observed that the union’s bargaining strategy has three interconnected elements that match what <a href="https://www.pon.harvard.edu/daily/negotiation-training-daily/negotiating-in-three-dimensions-2/">Harvard Program on Negotiations researchers</a> recommend: an emphasis on substance, processes affecting interpersonal relations, and the setup – or context.</p>
<h2>3-part strategy</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/uaw-chief-shawn-fain-disrupts-detroits-labor-tradition-2023-09-15/">Fain and his leadership</a> team have gotten the upper hand in all three regards.</p>
<p>First, it framed the negotiations by publicizing its members’ demands at the very beginning of formal talks. From the start, the union has clearly argued that the automakers’ “record profits” in recent years meant that autoworkers deserve <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/14/record-auto-profits-inequality-climate-crisis-ford-general-motors-stellantis">what it calls “record contracts”</a> to compensate them for past sacrifices, such as <a href="https://www.michiganradio.org/economy/2023-10-03/behind-the-push-to-end-tiers-a-precarious-history-of-solidarity-in-the-uaw">lowering pay and reducing benefits</a> for newer hires.</p>
<p>So far, it looks like the UAW is making real gains on the substance of its demands. For example, by Oct. 3, <a href="https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2023/10/03/ford-makes-comprehensive-offer-to-uaw--record-pay-and-benefits--.html">Ford was offering a 26% pay raise</a>, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Business/day-workweek-46-raise-uaw-makes-audacious-demands/story?id=102926195">up from about 15% before the strike</a>, and the restoration of annual cost-of-living adjustments to keep up with inflation.</p>
<p>And on Oct. 6, Fain applauded GM’s acceptance of a key union demand: that all <a href="https://twitter.com/AFLCIO/status/1710359460521062858">workers at their electric-vehicle battery manufacturing plants</a> have the same working conditions and compensation as those who are making vehicles with internal combustion engines and transmissions. I see this as a monumental concession that signals to the other companies that it would be advisable for them to follow suit.</p>
<p>Second, the union unilaterally changed the bargaining process, starting with its optics. The UAW dispensed with the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/26/with-gm-contract-set-uaw-takes-its-fight-to-ford-and-fiat-chrysler.html">traditional handshake ceremonies</a> it had previously held with auto executives to kick off contract negotiations. “There is no point in having some pomp and circumstance and some big ceremony acting like we’re working together when we’re not,” <a href="https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2023/07/12/no-handshakes-uaw-leaders-visit-plants-as-high-stakes-contract-talks-begin-in-metro-detroit/">Fain told reporters in mid-July</a>.</p>
<p>Instead of participating in conciliatory photo-ops, the leadership held <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/12/cars/uaw-head-strike-big-three/index.html">meet-and-greets with rank-and-file UAW members</a> at factories belonging to Ford, General Motors and Stellantis – the global automaker that makes Chrysler, Dodge and Ram vehicles – where Fain declared that the union was ready to go on strike. </p>
<p>More significantly in terms of its processes, the UAW is on strike for the first time <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/09/15/1199673197/uaw-strike-big-3-automakers">against all three of the automakers</a>, having abandoned its prior practice of targeting one company at a time. Bargaining simultaneously with all three companies effectively pits them against each other. </p>
<p>One way Fain is doing that is by expanding picket lines in accordance with the progress or lack thereof each of the three automakers makes in meeting the UAW’s demands. Pressure on the companies is building with rolling deadlines at which additional strike sites are announced. </p>
<p>This strategy has led the companies to make concessions, with the union barely having to reciprocate. Although the UAW is now <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/uaw-strike-what-are-their-demands-detroit-big-three-detroit/">seeking a 36% increase in pay</a>, down from 46%, it has not ratcheted down many of its other demands.</p>
<p>Third, the union has successfully used social media to get its narrative across and to <a href="https://pro.morningconsult.com/analysis/uaw-strike-polling">rally public support</a> for its <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/510281/unions-strengthening.aspx">fight with the automakers</a>.</p>
<p>Perhaps the best evidence that the union’s outreach strategy is succeeding is that Joe Biden became the first sitting president to <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/09/26/remarks-by-president-biden-at-united-auto-workers-picket-line/">join strikers on a picket line</a> when he made a trip to Belleville, Michigan, on Sept. 26. Once there, Biden expressed support for the UAW’s cause.</p>
<p>The UAW has <a href="https://uaw.org/uaw-releases-new-video-corporate-greed-whats-really-going-auto-industry/">repeatedly accused the companies of being greedy</a>, often by pointing to what their top executives make: The CEOs of Ford, General Motors and Stellantis each received between <a href="https://www.wsj.com/business/auto-ceos-make-about-300-times-what-their-median-worker-is-paid-heres-how-that-stacks-up-cefc9a5">$21 million and $29 million in compensation</a> in 2022.</p>
<figure>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">UAW President Shawn Fain has emphasized themes such as corporate greed in the union’s social media campaigns.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Collaborative vs. adversarial</h2>
<p>Research on labor-management negotiations has underscored two basic approaches to bargaining: <a href="https://www.pon.harvard.edu/shop/getting-to-yes-negotiating-agreement-without-giving-in/">collaborative</a> and <a href="https://www.pearson.com/en-us/subject-catalog/p/mind-and-heart-of-the-negotiator-the/P200000006425/9780135641262">adversarial</a>. </p>
<p>Early on, collective bargaining in the U.S. auto industry was the latter. </p>
<p>By the late 1970s, as the <a href="https://www.wardsauto.com/news-analysis/foreign-invasion-imports-transplants-change-auto-industry-forever">Big Three lost market share</a> to foreign automakers, the UAW was forced into a concessionary bargaining mode. It compromised on pay and benefits to enable manufacturers to compete against nonunion employers – <a href="https://www.chicagofed.org/publications/blogs/chicago-fed-insights/2023/recent-uaw-contracts-ford-gm-stellantis">especially in 2007 and 2009</a> amid weak demand for new vehicles.</p>
<p>In 2023, the UAW has declared those days over.</p>
<p>The union is instead focused on what <a href="https://theconversation.com/united-auto-workers-strike-if-it-happens-should-channel-the-legacy-of-walter-reuther-who-led-the-union-at-the-peak-of-its-power-212324">Walter Reuther</a>, the UAW’s longtime leader, called “<a href="https://uaw.org/walter-reuther-quote-collection/">the sharing of economic abundance</a>.”</p>
<p>To implement its new strategy, the union is relying on several <a href="https://www.pon.harvard.edu/daily/batna/10-hardball-tactics-in-negotiation/">hard-bargaining tactics</a>: extreme demands, personal attacks, threats and warnings, rolling deadlines and holding unpredictable strikes that are the same for all three companies.</p>
<p><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Business/day-workweek-46-raise-uaw-makes-audacious-demands/story?id=102926195">Fain himself described</a> the union’s initial demands as “audacious.” </p>
<p>On top of a roughly 46% wage increase, it sought the restoration of annual cost-of-living adjustments, retiree health care and defined-benefit pensions, the elimination of separate wage tiers for longtime and newer workers and increases in profit-sharing. The UAW also sought a 32-hour work week with pay for 40 hours of labor and the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/auto-workers-union-wage-increase-jobs-bank-b8370b11bd692191d9ee3080001ef358">restoration of jobs banks</a> – an abolished system that paid workers at closed factories who did community service.</p>
<p>Some analysts have estimated that accepting all of these conditions <a href="https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/uaw-strike-tesla-labor-costs-baf8b897">would more than double</a> labor costs for the three automakers.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552182/original/file-20231004-24-hjr1vh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="President Biden, in blue, speaking into a megaphone near several people dressed in red in front of signs saying GM and UAW." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552182/original/file-20231004-24-hjr1vh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552182/original/file-20231004-24-hjr1vh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552182/original/file-20231004-24-hjr1vh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552182/original/file-20231004-24-hjr1vh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552182/original/file-20231004-24-hjr1vh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552182/original/file-20231004-24-hjr1vh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552182/original/file-20231004-24-hjr1vh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Joe Biden addressed striking United Auto Workers members on the picket line outside a GM facility on Sept. 26, 2023, in Van Buren Township, Mich.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Biden/881fa5d8d9fc45b99ec615befe6f9c3f/photo?boardId=37be9465fcce45d283d5431cccb20a6a&st=boards&mediaType=audio,photo,video,graphic&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=455&currentItemNo=6">AP Photo/Evan Vucci</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Signs of success</h2>
<p>I think it’s clear that the union caught the companies flat-footed in response to this unconventional approach and that the Big Three are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/10/04/uaw-strike-automaker-offers/">making significant concessions</a> in terms of raising pay for the lowest-paid workers.</p>
<p>At the same time, gaps do remain between the union’s demands and what the companies are offering, especially in terms of across-the-board pay increases.</p>
<p>For example, Ford and Stellantis have not yet agreed to the UAW’s demands regarding equal pay, benefits and job protections for <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/09/29/uaw-strike-ford-ceo-ev-battery-plants">electric-vehicle manufacturing workers</a>. And there seems to be no progress toward shortening the work week to four days from five – which may have been more of an <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/09/11/1198394085/uaw-big-3-automakers-4-day-work-week-shawn-fain-detroit">optimistic ask than a hard demand</a>.</p>
<p>But with a little give-and-take, I have little doubt that the parties will resolve these matters. And despite this high-stakes dispute, I believe it’s possible for the automakers to wind up with a win if they can accentuate the common interests that bind labor and management to their shared future success.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article originally published on Oct. 6, 2023, with details about a new development involving the UAW’s negotations with General Motors.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214679/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>While director of the Douglas A. Fraser Center for Workplace Issues at Wayne State University from 2009 through 2019, the Center received grants from the Detroit Three's joint training centers with the United Auto Workers to pursue education and research on unions and labor-management relations. These grants were operating strictly with the purview of the university. </span></em></p>The companies are making more generous offers, and the union is commanding support from the general public and the president of the United States.Marick Masters, Professor of Business and Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Wayne State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2149262023-10-05T14:20:03Z2023-10-05T14:20:03ZWhy are thousands of Kaiser health care workers on strike? 5 questions answered<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552128/original/file-20231004-27-7dutzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C38%2C8640%2C5703&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kaiser Permanente health care workers in five states and Washington, D.C., are rallying against low wages and understaffing that they say is undermining patient care.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Hospitals-Strike/9baec78d997e408b9436e7ed91a62597/photo?Query=kaiser%20permanente&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=now-24h&totalCount=12&currentItemNo=4">AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>More than <a href="https://apnews.com/article/kaiser-health-care-workers-strike-b8b40ce8c082c0b8c4f1c0fb7ec38741">75,000 Kaiser Permanente health care workers</a> <a href="https://www.cnn.com/business/live-news/kaiser-strike-100423/index.html">began a three-day strike</a> in Virginia, California, Colorado, Washington state, Oregon and Washington, D.C., on Oct. 4, 2023, after company executives and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/04/business/thousands-of-kaiser-permanente-workers-go-on-strike/index.html">eight unions representing aides, techs, support staff</a> and other employees failed to agree on the terms of new contracts. This is the <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/10/02/kaiser-strike-workers-healthcare">largest U.S. health care strike</a> on record. In a statement it released when the walkout started, <a href="https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/who-we-are/labor-relations/we-remain-committed-to-reaching-an-agreement-with-the-coalition">Kaiser asserted that it wanted to reach a deal</a> soon with the striking workers.</em></p>
<p><em>Although hospitals and emergency rooms are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0F5vgl2_XU">still open during the strike</a>, and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/kaiser-health-care-workers-strike-b8b40ce8c082c0b8c4f1c0fb7ec38741">Kaiser is making use of temporary workers</a>, many of its noncritical services are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0F5vgl2_XU">temporarily closed or operating under reduced hours</a>. The strike does not include any nurses unions or doctors.</em></p>
<p><em>The Conversation asked <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ZuwzOscAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Michael McQuarrie</a>, an Arizona State University sociologist who directs its Center for Work and Democracy, to explain why this strike is happening now and how labor actions like this can affect patient care.</em></p>
<figure>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Kaiser health care workers on the picket line outside of a Kaiser Permanente facility in Sacramento, Calif. It is the largest medical care worker strike in U.S. history.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>1. Why is this historic strike happening now?</h2>
<p>The two main reasons are concerns over staffing levels and practices and dissatisfaction with pay that hasn’t kept up with inflation and was too low to begin with.</p>
<p>Kaiser says its options are limited due to a national <a href="https://onlinenursing.duq.edu/post-master-certificates/shortage-of-healthcare-workers/">shortfall in all sorts of health care workers</a>, including home health aides and nurse practitioners. Workers counter that higher pay and better working conditions would attract more applicants. </p>
<p>Health care workers have long worried that <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390%2Fmedicina55090553">inadequate staffing is undercutting the quality of care</a> for patients – this has been a central issue in contract negotiations and strikes for years. But the <a href="https://www.aha.org/fact-sheets/2021-11-01-data-brief-health-care-workforce-challenges-threaten-hospitals-ability-care">COVID-19 pandemic greatly exacerbated</a> the problem.</p>
<p>At the same time, inflation has outstripped negotiated wage increases for Kaiser workers. Kaiser is currently offering some workers in Northern California and Washington state <a href="https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/who-we-are/labor-relations/our-latest-offer">4% annual raises</a> for the four years covered by the new contract and lower raises for everyone else. The <a href="https://www.unioncoalition.org/kp-two-tier-proposal/">unions have rejected</a> this offer, which they say would not make up for past inflation and would unnecessarily create different wage scales based on the region where workers are located.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/H9acTkErSMQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">“Why are we here? Patient care! How do we get it? Higher staffing. Why are we here? Patient care! How do we get it? Living wages.” Video by Amanda Mascarelli.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. Has Kaiser’s financial management played a role too?</h2>
<p>Kaiser, which provides health care for 12.7 million Americans, took in <a href="https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/news/kaiser-foundation-health-plan-and-hospitals-2022-financial-results">US$95.4 billion in revenue</a> in 2022 but ran a <a href="https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/news/kaiser-foundation-health-plan-and-hospitals-2022-financial-results">$1.2 billion operating loss</a> that it attributed to “strong economic headwinds in the financial markets” – suggesting that its investments were to blame rather than its health care operations. </p>
<p>For 2021, Kaiser reported that it had about <a href="https://www.fitchratings.com/research/us-public-finance/fitch-affirms-kaiser-permanente-ca-idr-at-aa-outlook-stable-16-05-2022">$56 billion in unrestricted cash</a> <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_audit/11867620211">and investments</a>, excluding assets tied to employee and retiree pensions. </p>
<p>Kaiser’s <a href="https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/news/kaiser-foundation-health-plan-and-hospitals-q2-2023-financials">profits in the first half of 2023 totaled about $3.4 billion</a>, however. And with the exception of its losses in 2022, Kaiser has been <a href="https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/kaiser-record-net-income-covid-nonprofit/618783/">consistently profitable for years</a>.</p>
<p>Concerns over low worker pay are growing while <a href="https://paddockpost.com/2023/07/17/executive-compensation-at-kaiser-health-2021/">Kaiser’s executive compensation</a> is increasing. As of 2021, its <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/941340523">CEO Gregory Adams was making more than $15.5 million</a> a year in pay and “other” compensation.</p>
<h2>3. But isn’t Kaiser a nonprofit – and does that mean it has any special obligations?</h2>
<p>Like many health care systems, <a href="https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/kaiser-cleveland-clinic-and-more-6-nonprofit-systems-back-in-the-black.html">Kaiser is a nonprofit</a>. This means it pays very little in taxes. In exchange for their special tax status, nonprofits are supposed to provide <a href="https://www.upcounsel.com/nonprofit-public-benefit-corporation">public benefits</a>.</p>
<p>Nonprofits may make more money than they spend, but they <a href="https://boardsource.org/resources/nonprofit-laws-and-regulations-faqs/">can’t distribute profits to its shareholders</a>. Nonprofit executive compensation must be <a href="https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/exempt-organization-annual-reporting-requirements-meaning-of-reasonable-compensation">“reasonable,” according to the Internal Revenue Service</a> – although it can be hard to determine how much is too much.</p>
<h2>4. Are there any precedents for this strike?</h2>
<p>Health care strikes are not unusual, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/04/business/thousands-of-kaiser-permanente-workers-go-on-strike/index.html">with more than 40 occurring</a> in the past two years. However, the industry and the workforce are heavily fragmented, which means that these strikes tend to be relatively small.</p>
<p>In September 2022, the <a href="https://www.usnursing.com/blog/unveiling-the-largest-nursing-strike-in-u-s-history">Minnesota Nurses Association took 15,000 members</a> on strike over many of the same issues, such as staffing and inflation. That strike, which lasted three days, was the largest health care strike in U.S. history by that point in terms of the number of workers involved.</p>
<p>Prior to that, the largest was probably another <a href="https://www.mprnews.org/story/2010/06/11/nurses-nextsteps">Minnesota strike in 2010</a>, in which about 12,000 nurses walked off the job for 24 hours. </p>
<p>Kaiser has experienced much smaller strikes in the past, such as a <a href="https://www.kpbs.org/news/health/2015/01/12/kaiser-therapists-strike-over-staffing-issues">walkout in 2015</a> of about 75 mental health clinicians.</p>
<h2>5. How much are patients harmed during health care strikes?</h2>
<p>It depends on the strike, but usually not much. </p>
<p>Critical care Kaiser facilities will remain open, though the strike will likely cause some delays in care due to short staffing and long lines.</p>
<p>Some appointments and elective procedures at the affected hospitals are being postponed, and nonessential functions like labs and radiology departments are temporarily closed or their hours are being reduced.</p>
<p>Registered nurses, who are very important bedside caregivers, are part of a different coalition of Kaiser unions. While they won’t be on strike, they <a href="https://www.kqed.org/news/11963308/kaiser-strike-if-youre-a-patient-what-medical-services-would-be-affected">may have to help cover work</a> not being done by aides and other support staff who are on the picket lines.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214926/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael McQuarrie works with and does research on unions and other organizations. The Center for Work and Democracy has received funding from United Healthcare Workers West/SEIU, which is part of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions.</span></em></p>Workers are objecting to staffing levels they say endanger patient care and are refusing their employer’s offer that includes raises that they say are too low due to inflation.Michael McQuarrie, Director of the Center for Work and Democracy, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2145192023-10-05T12:35:23Z2023-10-05T12:35:23ZWhat today’s labor leaders can learn from the explosive rise and quick fall of the typesetters union<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551502/original/file-20231002-29-eiap6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=31%2C5%2C3489%2C2349&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Formerly cutting-edge technology.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/metal-printing-press-letters-royalty-free-image/464946342">iStock/Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Can a seemingly robust labor union simply collapse? The news is full of stories about growing union power – but just because a union is strong now doesn’t mean it’ll stay that way. Important unions have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/001979398403700201">put themselves out of business</a> before. The <a href="https://depts.washington.edu/moves/CIO_ITU_locals.shtml">International Typographical Union</a>, or ITU, is one such example. Once it was among the nation’s most significant unions, but it disappeared in just a few decades.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bu.edu/questrom/profile/jay-zagorsky/">I am a business school professor</a> who is fascinated by the lessons of the ITU – first, because <a href="http://businessmacroeconomics.com">I teach courses</a> about unions, and second, because I inadvertently participated in the ITU’s demise. But more on that later.</p>
<h2>More than just a ‘hot labor summer’</h2>
<p>Right now, union leaders are feeling powerful. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/25/cnbc-daily-open-summer-of-discontent.html">More than 360,000</a> workers have <a href="https://theconversation.com/waves-of-strikes-rippling-across-the-us-seem-big-but-the-total-number-of-americans-walking-off-the-job-remains-historically-low-210673">gone on strike in 2023</a> – nearly <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/wkstp.nr0.htm">three times as many</a> as in all of 2022. The United Auto Workers union is currently <a href="https://theconversation.com/us-autoworkers-launch-historic-strike-3-questions-answered-213518">striking against</a> Detroit’s Big Three and demanding a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/uaw-strike-ford-gm-stellantis-contract-offers-5dd4dee2056b7efe06d2a55433d8d13a">36% pay hike</a>. UPS recently <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/22/business/economy/ups-contract-vote-teamsters.html">agreed to union demands</a> for a generous new contract, under which the most senior drivers will eventually earn about $170,000 a year. Hollywood was shut down by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/actors-are-demanding-that-hollywood-catch-up-with-technological-changes-in-a-sequel-to-a-1960-strike-209829">screenwriters’ and actors’ strikes</a>.</p>
<p>However, union leaders would be wise not to overplay their hands. The typesetters guild boasted more than <a href="https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/1970/compendia/statab/91ed/1970-03.pdf">100,000 members at its peak</a>. Today it serves as a cautionary example of how quickly union power can erode.</p>
<h2>A brief digression: What is typesetting, anyway?</h2>
<p>Our story begins <a href="https://www.asme.org/getmedia/4e9d6576-020f-4e74-a00c-27e11a250f09/gutenberg-and-mass-production.pdf">in the 1500s</a> with the invention of the movable-type printing press. Workers called typesetters would take individual blocks of letters and <a href="https://letterpresscommons.com/setting-type-by-hand/">arrange them into lines of text</a>. They would store unused letters in two cases: capital letters in an upper case and smaller letters in the easier-to-access lower case. That practice – which is why English speakers still describe letters as <a href="https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/did-you-know-history/why-it-called-upper-and-lower-case">“uppercase” and “lowercase”</a> – would be ripe for disruption a few centuries later.</p>
<p>A typesetter’s biggest concern was letters falling out when put on the printing press. To prevent this, all lines were made justified, or the same width, so <a href="https://www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au/lost-jobs/in-print/hand-setting/">text could be locked into a rectangular frame</a>. Being a good typesetter demanded physical skills to move blocks of type quickly. It also took intellect, since typesetters acted as de facto proofreaders and layout designers. </p>
<h2>An early American union</h2>
<p>Fast-forward a few hundred years. <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0113/the-history-of-unions-in-the-united-states.aspx">U.S. labor unions started picking up steam</a> after the Civil War, and typographers were <a href="https://depts.washington.edu/moves/CIO_ITU_locals.shtml">quick to unionize</a>, since their high literacy levels helped with organizing. They formed the International Typographical Union <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1821011">in 1852</a> with more than 1,000 members.</p>
<p>Thirty years after its founding, the ITU faced a major technological shock. In 1886, the inventor <a href="https://www.typeroom.eu/ottmar-mergenthaler-10-things-to-know-about-linotype-inventor">Ottmar Mergenthaler</a> was granted a patent for the Linotype machine. This machine allowed operators to select characters by typing them on a keyboard instead of picking them from a type case. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2022/06/the-linotype-the-machine-that-revolutionized-movable-type/">Linotype’s advantages were quickly evident</a>. A skilled <a href="https://www.prepressure.com/printing/history/1850-1899">operator could set 6,000 characters per hour</a>, many times faster than a hand compositor. The Linotype also didn’t require blocks of letters to be re-sorted into type cases after material was printed. Instead, lines of <a href="https://www.history.uwo.ca/public_history/docs/i2i%20big%20labels.pdf">type could be melted down and reused</a>.</p>
<p>The Linotype and competing machines didn’t hurt the union because it made publishing cheaper, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/1998/02/11/a-history-of-newspaper-gutenbergs-press-started-a-revolution/2e95875c-313e-4b5c-9807-8bcb031257ad/">which resulted in a burst of printing</a>. In fact, ITU membership increased as new newspapers, magazines and book publishers sprang up, all of whom needed skilled workers who could take handwritten copy and transform it into printed text. </p>
<p>By the start of World War I, ITU membership was over 60,000.</p>
<p>The union’s membership peaked in the 1960s, with newspapers being the biggest employers of ITU members. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1950/07/22/archives/publishers-reopen-battle-with-itu-union-is-accused-of-coercion-on.html">Newspaper publishers didn’t like</a> the ITU because it meant they had to pay for two different expensive workforces: the reporters who created the content and the typesetters who made that content readable. While only <a href="https://newsguild.org/history/">some of the reporters were unionized</a>, almost all of the typesetters were.</p>
<h2>The decline of the ITU</h2>
<p>Starting in the 1960s, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1978/07/03/archives/paper-using-cold-type-2-main-innovations-how-new-method-works-the.html">other new developments</a> like <a href="https://www.dsource.in/course/digital-typography-1/phototypesetting">phototypesetting</a> and then <a href="https://web.stanford.edu/%7Ebkunde/fb-press/articles/wdprhist.html">word processing</a> threatened typesetters’ jobs. </p>
<p>The ITU fought against technological changes with a <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/11/1963-newspaper-strike-bertram-powers">massive strike in New York City</a>. When the strike started, New York City had seven daily newspapers. After a 114-day shutdown, only three remained: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/">The New York Times</a>, the <a href="https://nypost.com/">New York Post</a> and the <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/">Daily News</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551499/original/file-20231002-24-94rdfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Dozens of protesters with the ITU stand densely packed together on a New York City street, waving signs and placards." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551499/original/file-20231002-24-94rdfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551499/original/file-20231002-24-94rdfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551499/original/file-20231002-24-94rdfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551499/original/file-20231002-24-94rdfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551499/original/file-20231002-24-94rdfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551499/original/file-20231002-24-94rdfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551499/original/file-20231002-24-94rdfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of the International Typographical Union demonstrate outside the offices of The New York Times on Jan. 15, 1963.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/new-york-ny-bertram-powers-president-of-local-six-of-the-news-photo/514907050">Bettmann/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The relatively high pay of typesetters, combined with their ability to shut down production for long periods of time, made newspapers, magazines and other publishers <a href="https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/108858/02996029-MIT.pdf">eager customers</a> for high-tech companies that built computers that automatically determined line breaks, hyphenation and text justification. These computers also saved time by eliminating the need for typing copy twice: first by the author and then by a typesetter.</p>
<p>This <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/j.ctt15jvw33.14">second technological revolution devastated</a> ITU membership. From 1984 to 1987, its membership halved. In 1986, it <a href="https://cwa-union.org/about/cwa-history">merged with the Communications Workers of America</a>, which today <a href="https://cwa-union.org/about">doesn’t even mention typographers</a> on its list of sectors.</p>
<h2>Walking the negotiating tightrope</h2>
<p>Similarly today, unions are pushing for large wage increases at a time when new technologies pose a threat to those workers’ livelihoods. <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/teamsters-tech-firms-tangle-over-self-driving-trucks-bill">Autonomous vehicles threaten</a> Teamsters truckers; robots and simpler-to-build <a href="https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/npr-news/2023-09-20/why-the-uaw-is-fighting-so-hard-for-these-4-key-demands-in-the-auto-strike">electric vehicles threaten</a> United Auto Workers; ChatGPT threatens screenwriters.</p>
<p>Labor leaders walk a fine line: Their job is to advocate for workers, but making aggressive demands can backfire if they prompt employers to more quickly embrace automation. In other words, there’s a risk that militancy today can destroy union jobs tomorrow.</p>
<p>Oh, yes – how did I inadvertently help the ITU’s demise? </p>
<p>After newspapers computerized their news operations, typographers were still needed to create display ads. I joined a <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/obituaries/2015/10/01/george-white-founded-companies-that-helped-change-newspaper-production/r8oA8ERHMy6siV17BTvOkO/story.html">small high-tech company</a> that built some of the first software and hardware that automated creating display ads. Our systems cost millions of dollars but were eagerly purchased by large newspapers.</p>
<p>The irony was that shortly after my company helped put the final nail in the ITU’s coffin, a new wave of computer companies such as Apple, Adobe and Hewlett-Packard created the <a href="https://www.loc.gov/rr/business/businesshistory/April/apple_testimage.html">desktop publishing revolution</a>. That technological change put the company I worked for out of business.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214519/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jay L. Zagorsky does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>History suggests that there’s risk of overplaying one’s hand when new technology is lurking.Jay L. Zagorsky, Clinical Associate Professor of Markets, Public Policy and Law, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2145092023-10-01T09:57:46Z2023-10-01T09:57:46ZTrade unions and the new economy: 3 African case studies show how workers are recasting their power in the digital age<p>From US <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-trump-woo-union-workers-michigan-auto-strikes-grow-2023-09-26/">car factories</a> to public sector workers <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/5/nigerian-unions-strike-again-to-protest-soaring-costs-after-subsidy-removal">in Nigeria</a> and <a href="https://ewn.co.za/2023/09/08/city-of-tshwane-samwu-strike-a-deliberate-effort-to-turn-the-city-into-a-dumpsite">South Africa</a>, strikes by trade unions continue unabated among the established sectors of the working class. In Detroit in the US, workers are resisting contract employment. In Nigeria they are angry over the rising cost of living and in South Africa, municipal workers are striking for better wages.</p>
<p>But it’s becoming increasingly difficult to build sustainable worker organisations as companies employ more people on a casual basis in the digital age. Work has become more precarious and workers are easily replaceable. </p>
<p>In our <a href="https://witspress.co.za/page/detail/Recasting-Workers%EF%BF%BD-Power/?k=9781776148820">new book</a>, Recasting Workers’ Power: Work and Inequality in the Shadow of the Digital Age, we focus on workers’ power. The classic example of workers’ power is the strike: the collective withdrawal of labour to force an employer to do what they would otherwise not have done. </p>
<p>In this book we challenge the dominant narrative that new technology has destroyed workers’ power. We focus on the new jobs that are being created – food couriers, e-hailing drivers, street traders and the growing numbers of casual workers at the core of the economy.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/zambias-copper-mines-hard-baked-racism-into-the-workplace-by-labelling-whites-expats-188751">Zambia's copper mines hard-baked racism into the workplace by labelling whites 'expats'</a>
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<p>We show how these precarious workers are organising in new ways that go beyond the traditional methods of union formation. For example, they are forming coalitions with other organisations, such as NGOs. In some cases they are combining these new approaches with traditional ways of bringing workers’ collective power to bear, for example by making use of laws that support workers’ rights.</p>
<h2>Three case studies</h2>
<p>We focus on three sectors: factory workers in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg in South Africa; food couriers in Johannesburg; and transport workers in Kampala, Uganda. </p>
<p>We examined their ways of organising by applying, in addition to the strike weapon, the lens of three other ways of exercising power: associational power (collective organisation), coalitions (societal power) and institutional power (laws that entrench labour rights). </p>
<p>We found the factory workers were using a range of tools – old and new – to organise. Factory committees were formed at some workplaces. This involved working with a labour supportive NGO. But they also drew on old practices (institutional power) by taking up cases through the <a href="https://www.ccma.org.za/">Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration</a> and the amended <a href="https://www.gov.za/documents/labour-relations-act">Labour Relations Act</a>. Both offer the possibility of workers being able to get permanent jobs in the company at which they work.</p>
<p>The food carriers were using different tactics. In Johannesburg they had created worker-driven messaging apps and chat groups where they shared information, developed a shared identity and announced local direct action. </p>
<p>Being self-employed weakens their organising power. But the potential for collective power was increased when they met face-to-face at work zones and began to form a collective identity. Some have engaged in collective action, but with limited impact to date. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/has-south-africas-labour-movement-become-a-middle-class-movement-82629">Has South Africa’s labour movement become a middle class movement?</a>
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<p>They achieved some success when they worked with a supportive NGO (an international organisation) to put forward demands to regulate their work.</p>
<p>In Kampala, we found that the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers’ Union was also using new approaches to organise workers. In the 1980s the union faced a near collapse of membership when privatisation undermined the public transport sector. This eliminated the position of the traditional public transport bus driver. Informal mini-taxi drivers and motorcycle taxi riders (known locally as boda boda) became the dominant mode of transport.</p>
<p>By classifying the growing number of boda boda riders as workers and therefore potential union members, the union expanded from a declining 5,000 members to over 100,000. In spite of the fragmented and isolated nature of their work these new workers were already organised – not into a trade union but into informal associations. </p>
<p>These associations formed an alliance with the established union. By doing this they gained concrete support from the International Transport Federation, a global union of transport workers. This led to the dramatic growth of the union, a decline in police harassment and growing recognition as a collective bargaining partner.</p>
<p>Importantly, where trade unions have taken up the issues of informal workers, unions have also undergone fundamental changes. They often become “hybrid” organisations, blurring the distinction between traditional unionism, informal workers’ associations and cooperatives.</p>
<h2>What next?</h2>
<p>Our <a href="https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/recasting-labours-power">research</a> clearly articulates the challenges workers face. But it also suggests some grounds for optimism in the new and hybrid forms of organisation and the coalitions that are emerging. </p>
<p>The question raised by these findings is whether these embryonic forms of worker organisation are sustainable. Could they become the foundations for a new cycle of worker solidarity and union growth?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-formal-employment-is-not-a-guaranteed-path-to-social-equality-177251">Why formal employment is not a guaranteed path to social equality</a>
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<p>We conclude that this is possible if they innovate and experiment with new forms of association, use digital tools, and broaden unions’ reach through coalition-building with other civil society organisations. In sum, we are suggesting that workers’ power is being recast as precarious workers in Africa experiment with new ways of organising in the digital age.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214509/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Edward Webster receives funding from organisation.Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. I am a Distinguished Research Professor at the Southern Centre of Inequality Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand </span></em></p>Workers’ power is being recast as precarious workers in Africa experiment with new ways of organising in the digital ageEdward Webster, Distinguished Reserach Professor, Southern Centre for Inequality Studies, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2145442023-09-29T12:23:56Z2023-09-29T12:23:56ZThe fight for 2% − how residuals became a sticking point for striking actors<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550993/original/file-20230928-27-9gozwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C21%2C7018%2C4643&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The SAG-AFTRA actors union has been on strike since July 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/members-of-the-writers-guild-of-america-joined-by-members-news-photo/1585226795?adppopup=true">Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Streaming disrupted the entire entertainment industry, upending the DVD-purchasing, film-renting, moviegoing model of decades past.</p>
<p>That shift has also changed how actors get paid. And some of the gains actors made through prior labor struggles – <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/07/27/1190336979/actors-strike-residuals-sag-aftra-wga">particularly through residuals</a>, which are a small percentage of shared earnings from film or television – have vanished.</p>
<p>Though the Writers Guild of America <a href="https://deadline.com/2023/09/wga-strike-officially-end-leaders-approve-tentative-deal-1235556919/">ended its strike</a> on Sept. 27, 2023, actors represented by SAG-AFTRA remain on strike. Residuals are one of their main <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/25/business/media/hollywood-writers-strike-deal.html">sticking points</a>: They want to receive 2% of revenue generated by shows they appear in on streaming platforms.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/actors-strike-why-sag-aftra-streaming-revenue-proposal-rejected-1235541505/">Studios counter that the number is unrealistic</a> – that it amounts to actors not assuming any financial risk when shows and movies flop, while reaping rewards when they succeed.</p>
<p>But in reality, actors simply want to adapt existing payout models to changing technology and consumption habits.</p>
<h2>The pandemic revealed a glimpse of the future</h2>
<p>The extent to which streaming changed the entertainment landscape came into focus during the COVID-19 pandemic. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/regal-cinemas-decision-to-close-its-theaters-is-the-latest-blow-to-a-film-industry-on-life-support-147535">With many movie theaters shuttered</a> because of government restrictions and most people reluctant to sit in a theater, some movie studios decided to release their movies through streaming services using what they called <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/07/business/media/universal-premium-video-on-demand.html">premium video on demand</a>.</p>
<p>For the made-to-be-blockbuster “Black Widow,” Disney decided to <a href="https://people.com/movies/black-widow-will-be-available-to-all-disney-plus-subscribers-earlier-than-expected/">release</a> the film simultaneously in theaters and on its propriety streaming service, Disney+, for US$30. </p>
<p>The film’s star, Scarlett Johansson, <a href="https://www.cnet.com/culture/entertainment/disney-sued-by-scarlett-johansson-over-black-widows-streaming-release/">sued Disney</a> for breach of contract. Johansson claimed to have lost $50 million from the simultaneous release, because her contract did not have the same revenue-sharing deal in place for streaming as it did for a theater release.</p>
<p>At $30, the price to stream “Black Widow” on television was <a href="https://www.natoonline.org/data/ticket-price/">equivalent to</a> roughly three theater tickets. At the same time, premium video on demand cuts most costs associated with exhibiting a film in the theater: The studios <a href="https://observer.com/2021/07/hollywood-movie-theaters-vs-streaming-pros-cons/">generally keep 80% of the revenue</a> as opposed to the standard 50% split with theaters.</p>
<p>Actors <a href="https://time.com/6294212/sag-aftra-actors-strike/">decided to strike</a> because they see the pitfalls for their own livelihoods tied to the structure of the contracts they are currently fighting to negotiate.</p>
<h2>A struggle for dignity</h2>
<p>The tensions today echo Hollywood’s 20th-century labor battles.</p>
<p>The Hollywood studio system of the 1930s and 1940s <a href="https://www.umsl.edu/%7Egradyf/film/STUDIOS.htm">was an era</a> of vertical integration in the film industry. The “Big Five” major studios – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Bros., Paramount, 20th Century Fox and RKO – <a href="https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-the-studio-system-in-hollywood/">employed</a> directors, writers, actors and camera operators. Filming, editing, distribution and showings were all handled in-house.</p>
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<img alt="Black and white photo of buildings from the sky." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551068/original/file-20230928-29-c65001.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551068/original/file-20230928-29-c65001.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551068/original/file-20230928-29-c65001.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551068/original/file-20230928-29-c65001.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551068/original/file-20230928-29-c65001.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551068/original/file-20230928-29-c65001.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551068/original/file-20230928-29-c65001.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A c. 1930 aerial shot of MGM Studios in Culver City, Calif.</span>
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<p>This created an efficient system that allowed for assembly-linelike production of films, not unlike <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/fordism">Ford automotive factories</a>. Actors – just like everyone else employed by the studios – received a salary for the length of their contracts. They didn’t make any extra money if a film became a blockbuster hit.</p>
<p>This period was <a href="https://cinemascholars.com/movie-stars-in-the-studio-system-secrets-and-rules/">rife with exploitation</a>, with low wages, <a href="https://theconversation.com/literature-has-long-been-sounding-the-alarm-about-sexual-violence-in-hollywood-87496">sexual violence</a> and little bargaining power for actors. </p>
<p>Actors fought hard against this system; they wanted to be able to negotiate payouts tied to their work on specific films. In 1948, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the studio system <a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-day-the-supreme-court-killed-hollywoods-studio-system">violated antitrust laws</a>, ending these unfair contracts. Actors’ newfound free agency allowed them to sign contracts with studios for individual films. This resulted in large earnings for some stars, but they were still largely cut out of any studio revenue.</p>
<p>Some actors began receiving residuals in the 1950s as part of their individual contracts. The system was modeled on royalties earned in music based on the sale of copyrighted music. But where composers and recording artists share in the copyright, actors do not have a claim to copyrights.</p>
<p>In the 1960s, SAG-AFTRA <a href="https://www.sagaftra.org/about/our-history/1960s">went on strike</a> to insist on residuals as part of the basic contract to provide revenue sharing with all actors. Ultimately, they received them.</p>
<h2>Getting a slice of streaming revenue</h2>
<p>It’s key to remember that today’s actors already receive <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/07/15/actors-strike-what-are-residuals/">2% residuals on revenue</a> from traditional television in secondary markets. A secondary market is a market outside of the film or television show’s original domestic release. Examples include foreign box office revenue, DVD sales, syndicated television shows and theater releases that appear on television. </p>
<p>So shows originally produced for broadcast television aren’t an issue. When “Friends,” which was originally an NBC sitcom, generates $1 billion dollars on streaming platforms, the five leads <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/07/15/actors-strike-what-are-residuals/">each earn</a> 2%, or $20 million apiece. But a show like “Stranger Things” – produced and owned by Netflix – never goes to a secondary market as long as it is aired only on Netflix, so the stars earn only their original pay. </p>
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<p>The problem, then, comes from the fact that the existing residual model, per the expiring SAG-AFTRA contract, doesn’t take streaming into account.</p>
<p>In the streaming era, all new shows produced by streaming platforms are concurrently reruns and original runs. Actors want 2% of streaming revenue generated by the show or film to replace this line of income. </p>
<p>One issue is that revenue from streaming remains an opaque process. <a href="https://www.cnet.com/culture/entertainment/disney-sued-by-scarlett-johansson-over-black-widows-streaming-release/">Data on earnings tied to streams</a> aren’t as clear as ticket sales or advertising revenue, and streaming platforms tend to keep this information in-house. But streaming services have their own metrics to determine the value of a show or film to the company, such as the number of streams, the first show a subscriber watches upon paying for a subscription and how long a customer remains a subscriber.</p>
<p>This 2% of streaming demand isn’t all that different from what <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/wga-ends-strike-releases-details-on-tentative-deal-with-studios-writers-hollywood/">writers received</a> to negotiate the end of their strike on Sept. 27, 2023. As part of that deal, the <a href="https://www.wgacontract2023.org/the-campaign/summary-of-the-2023-wga-mba">Writers Guild of America</a> negotiated residuals based on viewership on streaming platforms, and producers agreed to share data with the WGA, such as total streaming hours, to help determine payouts.</p>
<p>While 2% of revenue generated from shows and films equates to a larger demand for residuals than the WGA, <a href="https://www.sagaftra.org/files/sa_documents/SAG-AFTRA_2020TV-Theatrical_Summary.pdf">actors have always had higher residuals</a> <a href="https://www.wga.org/uploadedfiles/contracts/mba20.pdf">than writers</a>.</p>
<h2>Closing the loophole</h2>
<p>The original shows and movies created for streaming services like Netflix, Max or Disney+ reflect a vertically integrated system in which the platform owns the studio and the rights to those productions. In this sense, it harks back to the old studio system of the 1930s and 1940s.</p>
<p>For this reason, there is no benefit for studios and platforms to offer actors revenue for every stream, because technically there is no secondary market. Studios and platforms see larger profit margins, while actors see a loss of income. This is the loophole striking actors are looking to close.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/25/business/media/hollywood-writers-strike-deal.html">When reporters characterize</a> SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher as taking a “hard line” for 2% of revenue, they fail to see that is what actors already have. Actors simply want it to apply to shows and films that originate on streaming platforms.</p>
<p>They fought this battle to end the studio system. The fight for 2% is about demonstrating that the work actors do for streaming television is just as valuable as it’s always been.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214544/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Arditi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Studios say the number is unrealistic − that it amounts to actors not assuming any financial risk for content that flops. But actors simply want to adapt existing payout models to changing technology.David Arditi, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Texas at ArlingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2144412023-09-28T12:36:50Z2023-09-28T12:36:50ZTaylor Swift and the end of the Hollywood writers strike – a tale of two media narratives<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550689/original/file-20230927-29-ed9vu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C17%2C3977%2C2632&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Taylor Swift cheers as the Kansas City Chiefs play the Chicago Bears on Sept. 24, 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/taylor-swift-watches-during-a-regular-season-game-between-news-photo/1700723950?adppopup=true">David Eulitt/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>This fall, I’ve been starting my sociology classes by asking my students to share some uplifting news they’ve come across. </p>
<p>On Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023, they were abuzz about <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/entertainment-arts-66919232">Taylor Swift’s appearance at the Kansas City Chiefs game on Sunday</a>. Swift and Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce had left Arrowhead Stadium together in Kelce’s convertible, confirming dating rumors. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=B2WlnYkAAAAJ&hl=en">As a scholar of the attention economy</a>, I wasn’t exactly surprised. Many of my students love Swift’s music, and the story had dominated major social media platforms like X, formerly known as Twitter, as a trending topic. </p>
<p>But I was taken aback when I learned that not a single student had heard that the Writers Guild of America <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/2023/09/24/writers-strike-agreement-wga-amptp/">had reached a deal</a> with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, or AMPTP, after a nearly 150-day strike. This <a href="https://www.wgacontract2023.org/WGAContract/files/Memorandum-of-Agreement-for-the-2023-WGA-Theatrical-and-Television-Basic-Agreement.pdf">historic deal</a> includes significant raises, improvements in health care and pension support, and – unique to our times – protections against the use of artificial intelligence to write screenplays. </p>
<p>Across online media platforms, the WGA announcement on Sept. 24, 2023, ended up buried under headlines and posts about the celebrity duo. To me, this disconnect felt like a microcosm of the entire online media ecosystem.</p>
<h2>Manufacturing consent online</h2>
<p>It almost goes without saying that news and social media platforms promote some stories and narratives over others. </p>
<p>This particular occurrence is fascinating, however, because the AMPTP represents some of the media conglomerates that directly disseminate news. For example, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/24/business/media/warner-bros-discovery-cnn-streaming-max.html">CNN is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery</a>, a member of the AMPTP. </p>
<p>At the time of this writing, CNN.com has <a href="https://www.cnn.com/search?q=wga&from=0&size=10&page=1&sort=newest&types=all&section=">three headlines</a> about the WGA strike and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/search?q=taylor&from=0&size=10&page=1&sort=newest&types=all&section=">eight headlines</a> about Swift at the Chiefs game. </p>
<p>Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky’s 1988 book “<a href="https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/5537300/mod_resource/content/1/Noam%20Chomsky_%20Edward%20S.%20Herman%20-%20Manufacturing%20Consent_%20The%20Political%20Economy%20of%20the%20Mass%20Media-Bodley%20Head%20%282008%29.pdf">Manufacturing Consent</a>” outlines the problem of media ownership by conglomerates. According to this theory, powerful interests control narratives, in part, by owning news sources. </p>
<p>There’s a free press in the U.S. But Herman and Chomsky argue that the news that reaches everyday people tends to be framed by a set of assumptions that align with the ideological interests of the media corporations and their advertisers: maintaining the economic status quo and spurring consumerism. </p>
<p>In the U.S. today, <a href="https://techstartups.com/2020/09/18/6-corporations-control-90-media-america-illusion-choice-objectivity-2020/">six conglomerates own and control 90% of media outlets</a>.</p>
<p>Per Pew Research Center data, a majority of Americans <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/01/12/more-than-eight-in-ten-americans-get-news-from-digital-devices/">get their news from online sources</a>. Scholars have since adapted Herman and Chomsky’s propaganda model <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/John-Demuyakor/publication/348404543_The_Propaganda_Model_in_the_Digital_Age_A_Review_of_Literature_on_the_Effects_of_Social_Media_on_News_Production/links/606f00b2a6fdcc5f778e81e2/The-Propaganda-Model-in-the-Digital-Age-A-Review-of-Literature-on-the-Effects-of-Social-Media-on-News-Production.pdf">to explain how social media ecosystems function</a>.</p>
<p>The role of <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/94d7/4593f66af3675f6bd1a8fb3abd4e89e0d7e2.pdf">algorithms is a key focus</a> of emergent research on manufacturing consent online. Sociologist Ruha Benjamin’s work consistently shows that <a href="https://aas.princeton.edu/publications/research/race-after-technology-abolitionist-tools-new-jim-code">algorithms are encoded with their developers’ biases</a>. Other studies show that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2021.1994624">critiques about algorithmic biases are suppressed</a> by corporate digital media platforms through <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437221077174">strategies like shadow-banning</a>, which refers to covertly banning users of concern without their knowledge. These algorithms determine what is trending on websites like X. This, in turn, influences trends on other platforms, like Google searches.</p>
<p>Google trend results show an enormous increase in search queries about Travis Kelce since Sept. 20, 2023, with the WGA strike victory receiving almost no interest in comparison. The massive gap in interest between these topics serves as an example of algorithms supporting trending topics over other newsworthy content. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550730/original/file-20230927-21-lwplc4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Graph showing a spike in searches for Swift and Kelce." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550730/original/file-20230927-21-lwplc4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550730/original/file-20230927-21-lwplc4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=206&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550730/original/file-20230927-21-lwplc4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=206&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550730/original/file-20230927-21-lwplc4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=206&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550730/original/file-20230927-21-lwplc4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=259&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550730/original/file-20230927-21-lwplc4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=259&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550730/original/file-20230927-21-lwplc4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=259&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A Google Trends graph shows online searches since Sept. 20, 2023, for ‘Travis Kelce,’ represented by the blue line, and ‘WGA,’ represented by the red line.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Aarushi Bhandari/Google Trends</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>Another key focus of the propaganda model for social media is <a href="https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/25880/1/1004203.pdf">targeted advertising</a>. </p>
<p>Unlike their predecessors in television, social media companies use “big data” to know users intimately and present ads that are personalized to each user. This strategy includes guerrilla marketing techniques like the ones employed by several companies after Swift’s appearance.</p>
<p>For example, the National Football League <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/nfl/taylor-swift-travis-kelce-nfl-jersey-sales-1.6978782">changed its X bio</a> to read “NFL (Taylor’s Version).” Sales of Kelce’s jersey <a href="https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/38496220/taylor-swift-effect-travis-kelce-jersey-sales-spike-nearly-400">skyrocketed in the few days</a> after Swift’s appearance at the Chiefs game. Hidden Valley Ranch changed its X handle to “Seemingly Ranch” after a Swift fan account noted that during the game, Swift had dipped her chicken fingers in “<a href="https://twitter.com/tswifterastour/status/1706076507540767211">seemingly ranch</a>.”</p>
<h2>Corporate media coverage of labor issues</h2>
<p>The muted coverage of the writers strike fits into <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780875461854/through-jaundiced-eyes/#bookTabs=1">a longer historical pattern</a> of tension between labor movements and corporate media. </p>
<p>In many cases, corporate media has <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801488870/framed/#bookTabs=1">framed disproportionately negative narratives</a> about strikes and union activities. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0160449X9902300402">an analysis of media coverage</a> of tensions between the United Auto Workers and General Motors from 1991-93 found that major newspapers, including The New York Times, consistently framed GM’s position in a positive light, while crafting significantly more negative stories about the strike and autoworkers. <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801488870/framed/#bookTabs=1">Similar patterns are visible</a> in media reporting on the 1993 American Airlines flight attendant strike and the 1997 United Parcel Service strike. </p>
<p>When not covering labor issues in a negative light, corporate media has a track record of ignoring and minimizing these issues. Communications scholar Jon Bekken’s meta-analysis of media coverage discovered <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20141222211416id_/http://javnost-thepublic.org:80/article/pdf/2005/1/5/">substantial drops in coverage of labor issues</a> by major outlets like the Chicago Tribune, The New York Times and CBS throughout the 1990s and into the 21st century.</p>
<p>This historical dynamic is <a href="https://read.dukeupress.edu/labor/article/19/3/77/318130">beginning to change</a>. Increasing <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/510281/unions-strengthening.aspx">public support for labor unions</a> and worker action have made it difficult to ignore the bubbling currents of organized labor across many industries, from <a href="https://sbworkersunited.org/strike-with-pride">Starbucks</a> to <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/09/26/uaw-strike-big-three-reputation/">autoworkers</a>. </p>
<p>Today, <a href="https://perfectunion.us/americans-broadly-support-the-uaw-strike-regardless-of-party/">58% of Americans support the ongoing United Auto Workers strikes</a> against GM, Ford and Stellantis, the company that makes Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge vehicles.</p>
<p>Despite corporate ownership and biased algorithms, labor movements have managed to secure public support, demonstrating that Americans are increasingly aware of their own class interests. During such a fraught political climate for the economic status quo, the WGA victory is a major indicator that strikes work.</p>
<p>So, amid these tensions, a feel-good story about Taylor Swift and football is a gift to media executives – and one that helps sell more ranch dressing, too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214441/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aarushi Bhandari does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What does it say about the online media ecosystem when the end of a 146-day strike is buried under headlines and posts about Swift’s budding romance with NFL star Travis Kelce?Aarushi Bhandari, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Davidson CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2134332023-09-28T05:39:02Z2023-09-28T05:39:02ZIn fractious debate, GOP candidates find common ground on cause of inflation woes and need for school choice<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550803/original/file-20230928-19-kzxcm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2634%2C1825&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy debate the finer points.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/republican-presidential-candidates-florida-gov-ron-desantis-news-photo/1705132466?adppopup=true">Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>It was a night in which even “<a href="https://www.reaganfoundation.org/education/virtual-learning-hub/the-great-communicator/">the great communicator</a>” himself may have struggled to be heard.</em></p>
<p><em>At the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California on Sept. 27, 2023, seven Republican candidates looking to become the leading challenger to the absent GOP front-runner Donald Trump <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/09/27/1201848640/second-republican-debate-california">interrupted, cross-talked and bickered</a> – often to the exasperation of the presidential debate moderators.</em></p>
<p><em>And yet, between the heated exchanges, important economic and business issues were discussed – from national debt and government shutdowns to labor disputes and even school choice. One thing the candidates agreed on: They aren’t fans of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/2023/08/15/what-is-bidenomics-president-biden-s-economic-philosophy-explained/e9ba8398-3b9b-11ee-aefd-40c039a855ba_story.html">Bidenomics</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Listening in for The Conversation were economists <a href="https://www.gonzaga.edu/school-of-business-administration/faculty/detail/herzogr">Ryan Herzog</a> of Gonzaga University and University of Tennessee’s <a href="https://web.utk.edu/%7Eccarrut1/">Celeste K. Carruthers</a>. Here are their main takeaways from the debate.</em></p>
<h2>Inflation talk assigns blame, falls flat on solutions</h2>
<p><strong>Ryan Herzog, Gonzaga University</strong></p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/official-polls/fox-news-poll-voters-white-house-doing-more-harm-than-good-inflation">most recent Fox News survey</a> showed that 91% of Americans are worried about inflation and 80% about rising housing costs. I tuned into the second GOP debate hoping to hear how the candidates would solve these problems. I was left disappointed. </p>
<p>Not a single candidate mentioned rising housing costs, and few even acknowledged inflation. Given how much the issue has dominated the news, I assumed the candidates would mention it more than the <a href="https://rollcall.com/2023/08/24/transcript-gop-presidential-hopefuls-debate-in-milwaukee">eight times</a> they did in the prior debate. I was wrong. </p>
<p>First, let’s check some inflation facts. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley claimed that the average household is spending US$7,000 more per year on groceries and gas because of inflation. I believe she also meant to include <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/11/economy/inflation-rate-spending/index.html">housing costs</a>. The latest data shows the annual inflation for food at home – as opposed to restaurant meals – is rising less than 3% per year. While that’s up 24% <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=19mVB">since the start of the pandemic</a>, it’s far below what you’d need for an increase of nearly $600 per month. </p>
<p>Next, former Vice President Mike Pence said that recent wage gains have not kept up with inflation. But according to the most recent data, average wage growth has actually <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/01/business/economy/wage-growth-inflation.html">outpaced inflation</a>. Indeed, workers in lower-wage industries that are seeing labor shortages, such as the leisure and hospitality sector, have seen <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/29/low-income-wages-employment-00097135">very substantial pay increases</a>. </p>
<p>Nearly every candidate blamed inflation on <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/government-spending-fuels-inflation-covid-relief-pandemic-debt-federal-reserve-stimulus-powell-biden-stagflation-11645202057">excessive federal spending</a>. Under Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden, the total level of U.S. government debt increased by nearly $8 trillion and $4.5 trillion, <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=18YJx">respectively</a>. As expected, most candidates proposed cutting government spending and taxes to help struggling families. But it’s unclear whether those policies, taken together, would be effective at lowering inflation.</p>
<p>The candidates also agreed on the need to promote U.S. energy independence – through drilling, fracking and coal – to promote low and stable inflation. But while reducing energy costs would support lower inflation, there was zero discussion of how new technologies like artificial intelligence could be used to fight inflation – for example, by improving productivity. In the end, most candidates resorted to old arguments and avoided debate on 21st-century solutions.</p>
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<h2>School choice is common refrain, but evidence on impact is mixed</h2>
<p><strong>Celeste K. Carruthers, University of Tennessee</strong> </p>
<p>Before a commercial break midway through the debate, moderators teased viewers to return for questions on education in the U.S. It’s understandable that voters would want to hear what candidates have to say on the issue. Younger students have <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/ltt/2022/">a long way to go</a> to recover from COVID-era learning losses, and many families are dissatisfied with public education to the point that they are <a href="https://www.urban.org/research/publication/where-kids-went-nonpublic-schooling-and-demographic-change-during-pandemic">leaving public schools</a> for home school and private school options. The education portion of the debate ended up being a short exchange, however, with more focus on immigration, inflation, border security, foreign policy and the opioid epidemic. </p>
<p>One common theme across candidates was at least a brief mention of school choice. School choice describes a variety of different policies that give the parents of pre-K-12 students more options for where they send their kids to school. These options can include charter schools, magnet schools, public schools outside of a student’s school zone or in another district, or even private schools. </p>
<p>Gov. Haley voiced a <a href="https://www.hoover.org/research/school-vouchers-next-great-leap-forward">commonly held view</a> among school choice supporters that providing students with more schooling options improves education by encouraging competition. Gov. DeSantis referenced “universal school choice” in his home state of Florida, which <a href="https://www.the74million.org/article/florida-just-became-the-nations-biggest-school-choice-laboratory/">recently passed legislation</a> that allows any student to apply for several thousand dollars in state funds that can be used toward private school tuition. </p>
<p>Researchers have found that earlier phases of private school vouchers in Florida led to <a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w26758/w26758.pdf">improvements</a> in public school student test scores, absenteeism and suspensions, which supports the idea that competition from private schools can benefit students who opt not to use vouchers and stay in public schools.</p>
<p>Private school vouchers are, however, a contentious topic. Opponents of vouchers and school choice policies more generally argue that they put traditional public schools at a <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/state-budget-and-tax/state-policymakers-should-reject-k-12-school-voucher-plans">financial disadvantage</a>. Critics have also noted that some of the early voucher advocates viewed them as a way to <a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/2017/7/23/21107262/critics-of-vouchers-say-they-re-marred-by-racism-and-exacerbate-segregation-are-they-right">avoid racial integration</a>. </p>
<p>Additionally, school choice can theoretically lead to sorting, where higher-achieving or higher-income students group together, and this can be detrimental to lower-achieving students who are left behind. There is <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1257/jel.20150679">evidence of sorting like this</a>, particularly in large-scale voucher systems outside the U.S. </p>
<p>Florida’s newly expanded model of school choice is <a href="https://www.the74million.org/article/florida-just-became-the-nations-biggest-school-choice-laboratory/">one of the most comprehensive</a> in the country. <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/23689496/school-choice-education-savings-accounts-american-federation-children">Several other states</a> have also recently revised their school choice policies, generally extending eligibility for vouchers and education savings accounts beyond needy populations. In time, we can expect the evidence on school choice to grow substantially and perhaps occupy more attention in future debates.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213433/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With Donald Trump absent again, Republican presidential hopefuls took potshots at each other but agreed that Bidenomics isn’t cutting it.Ryan Herzog, Associate Professor of Economics, Gonzaga UniversityCeleste K. Carruthers, Professor of Economics, University of TennesseeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2137252023-09-22T23:09:02Z2023-09-22T23:09:02ZUnion and execs need to shift gears fast once UAW strike is over – transition to EV manufacturing requires their teamwork<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549612/original/file-20230921-22-h1rcv0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=183%2C16%2C5369%2C3521&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">UAW members and leaders march in Detroit on Sept. 15, 2023 – the first day of the union's strike.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/AutoWorkersStrike/32bf9ce4bc70471a9008efa76adaf5b4/photo?boardId=37be9465fcce45d283d5431cccb20a6a&st=boards&mediaType=audio,photo,video,graphic&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=441&currentItemNo=9">AP Photo/Paul Sancya</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The United Auto Workers union is ramping up its <a href="https://theconversation.com/us-autoworkers-launch-historic-strike-3-questions-answered-213518">strike against General Motors and Stellantis</a> – the global company that makes Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge vehicles – and getting closer to a deal with Ford.</p>
<p>About 5,600 UAW members at <a href="https://apnews.com/article/uaw-ford-stellantis-general-motors-strike-labor-4132aa222c9a4456415af480d6fafa98">38 General Motors and Stellantis</a> distribution centers for auto parts in 20 states walked off the job on Sept. 22, 2023, after an announcement by UAW President Shawn Fain.</p>
<p>Workers at the only Ford plant affected by the strike since it <a href="https://apnews.com/article/strike-auto-workers-ford-gm-stellantis-f948704cce3d6dc9ca484142c5d0d98e">began on Sept. 15</a> will remain off the job. The total number of UAW members involved in the strike stands at about 18,300. </p>
<p>Under <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/09/22/uaw-strike-shawn-fain-00117091">Fain’s leadership</a>, the union is <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/uaw-shawn-fain-leadership-who-is-shawn-fain/">taking an adversarial approach</a>: It’s railing against what it describes as the “poverty wages” UAW members earn while denouncing the automakers’ CEOs as “greedy” and vowing to “<a href="https://www.wane.com/top-stories/with-no-deal-uaw-vows-to-expand-strike-will-fort-wayne-workers-hit-the-picket-line/">wreck their economy</a>.”</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=a1wi_lQAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">scholar of employment relations</a>, I think this strike is too narrowly focused on making up for the wages and benefits autoworkers have lost in recent years. But another big objective is ensuring that autoworkers will have good jobs once <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/16/business/electric-vehicles-uaw-gm-ford-stellantis.html">most U.S.-made vehicles are electric-powered</a>. </p>
<p>This dispute alone will not resolve this larger objective. Rather, I believe management and labor will need to swiftly move on following the strike and work together constructively to meet that goal.</p>
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<h2>UAW’s demands</h2>
<p>The union is demanding an end to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/20/this-fight-is-for-everybody-us-autoworkers-strike-to-restore-the-middle-class">concessions it made to the three companies</a> during the financial crisis that began in 2007. Its members employed by Ford, GM and Stellantis have experienced a <a href="https://www.epi.org/blog/uaw-automakers-negotiations/">19% decline in their wages</a>, after accounting for inflation, since 2008. </p>
<p>The union also wants the automakers – sometimes called the Detroit Three – to abolish <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/09/20/1200357955/uaw-big-3-strike-auto-shawn-fain">the tiered wage system</a>, which pays new employees far less than more experienced workers, even for the same work. The UAW initially said it was seeking a <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/what-know-uaw-strike-auto-companies-ford-general-motors-rcna103725">wage increase of 40%</a> over four years and the restoration of a <a href="https://uawd.org/cola/">cost-of-living allowance</a> that would link wages to inflation.</p>
<p>In addition to these demands, the UAW wants <a href="https://www.plansponsor.com/is-the-uaws-demand-for-return-of-pensions-a-realistic-ask/">defined-benefit pensions</a> for all workers restored, company-paid health benefits for retirees reestablished and the right to <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Business/day-workweek-46-raise-uaw-makes-audacious-demands/story?id=102926195">strike over plant closures</a> guaranteed. Other demands include more paid time off and seeing all temporary workers made permanent. It has also called for a <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/19/why-uaw-auto-workers-want-a-32-hour-workweek.html">32-hour work week</a> without a pay cut.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549615/original/file-20230921-26-bke2ex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Man in a blue jacket and white t-shirt surrounded by journalists holding microphones and recording devices" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549615/original/file-20230921-26-bke2ex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549615/original/file-20230921-26-bke2ex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549615/original/file-20230921-26-bke2ex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549615/original/file-20230921-26-bke2ex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549615/original/file-20230921-26-bke2ex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549615/original/file-20230921-26-bke2ex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549615/original/file-20230921-26-bke2ex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Ford CEO Jim Farley speaks to reporters about the UAW contract talks on Sept. 13, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/AutoWorkersCEOPay/1fbaeedd4edf4812aab98b67db0617ec/photo?boardId=37be9465fcce45d283d5431cccb20a6a&st=boards&mediaType=audio,photo,video,graphic&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=441&currentItemNo=4">AP Photo/Paul Sancya</a></span>
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<h2>Precedents for working together</h2>
<p>Although the strike has emphasized the goal of boosting future autoworker pay and benefits, I believe that workers and management can look to the past for ideas that might help them move forward. </p>
<p>GM’s Saturn partnership offers one potential model. </p>
<p>The company’s approach to its <a href="https://www.motortrend.com/features/saturn-cars-history-general-motors-feature/">Saturn brand of compact vehicles</a>, launched in 1985, was unique in many respects. Its governance structure was characterized by shared decision-making at different levels throughout the plant. The local union was a <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801438738/learning-from-saturn/">full partner in virtually all business decisions</a>. </p>
<p>GM invested billions of dollars in this venture, through which it tried to compete with Japanese imports and transplants that were quickly eroding GM’s market share. Saturns were designed differently than other U.S. vehicles, but what made those vehicles special was <a href="https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA276889.pdf">the extent to which labor</a> <a href="https://ecommons.cornell.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/2bc7da28-acc6-4a3d-af21-1c583b784136/content">shared the responsibility</a> for running Saturn’s main factory. </p>
<p>The Saturn partnership was hard to maintain, especially following the <a href="http://www.saturnfans.com/Company/2007/rogersmithdies.shtml">departure of Roger B. Smith</a>, the General Motors CEO who had pushed hard for it. The company <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123500373416017943">stopped making Saturns in 2009</a>, but the former subsidiary’s overall approach of involving workers in decisions about their jobs and the manufacturing process remains as critical today as it was in its heyday.</p>
<p>I would encourage the auto industry to again invoke the spirit of the Saturn venture, which emphasized the collaboration and partnership of labor and management in the production of high-quality, world-class vehicles. Only this time, the vehicles will be EVs.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549828/original/file-20230922-27-tgj5gs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A sporty silver two-door sedan" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549828/original/file-20230922-27-tgj5gs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549828/original/file-20230922-27-tgj5gs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549828/original/file-20230922-27-tgj5gs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549828/original/file-20230922-27-tgj5gs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549828/original/file-20230922-27-tgj5gs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549828/original/file-20230922-27-tgj5gs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549828/original/file-20230922-27-tgj5gs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Two Saturn salesmen look at a Saturn Sky Roadster in San Jose, Calif., weeks before all Saturn dealerships closed in 2009.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Saturn/e85314d7d19d40ab9bf4f45683fd5c50/photo?Query=saturn%20sky&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=8&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Paul Sakuma</a></span>
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<p>GM offers another model for positive union-management relations.</p>
<p>About 20 years ago, its Lansing-Grand River assembly plant in Michigan began to engage in a similar example of what I call <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/001979390906300104">joint responsibility unionism</a>. Management and the local UAW union established a contractual commitment to work together to continually improve production by systematically solving problems and increasing productivity.</p>
<p>Management and the local UAW union established a contractual commitment to work together to continually improve production by systematically solving problems and increasing productivity.</p>
<p>The local union and management hold each other accountable for keeping costs down and quality high. The plant, which assembles <a href="https://www.gm.com/company/facilities/lansing-grand-river">Cadillacs and Chevy Camaros</a>, continues this approach successfully today.</p>
<h2>Shift the focus to the future</h2>
<p>The UAW is pointing to the billions of dollars in <a href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/07/26/swec-j26.html">profits auto companies are currently getting</a> when it demands a bigger piece of the pie. The companies counter that rapidly increasing EV production is costly.</p>
<p>GM, Ford and Stellantis already plan to invest more than <a href="https://www.atlasevhub.com/data_story/210-billion-of-announced-investments-in-electric-vehicle-manufacturing-headed-for-the-u-s/">US$100 billion in electric vehicle manufacturing</a>. As production shifts away from vehicles with internal combustion engines that burn gasoline or diesel fuel, the number of autoworkers needed to build them will decline. <a href="https://energyright.com/ev-draft/how-do-an-evs-components-compare">EVs have fewer parts</a>.</p>
<p>Ford and Volkswagen, for example, have estimated that they’ll eventually need <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ev-electric-car-auto-industry-jobs-layoffs-employment-ford-2022-8">30% less labor due to the EV transition</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://electrek.co/2023/06/23/car-wars-ford-gm-stellantis-gain-most-us-ev-market-share/">Undergoing this transformation</a> with labor and management at loggerheads can’t possibly benefit the UAW or the auto companies. </p>
<p>Instead, they’ll need to focus on finding solutions together that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ev-electric-car-auto-industry-jobs-layoffs-employment-ford-2022-8">increase productivity</a>, build a skilled workforce and efficiently convert plants that make conventional vehicles today to EV factories tomorrow. In so doing, the UAW is more likely to meet its goal of seeing those EV factories employ its members.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213725/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Berg receives funding from Sloan Foundation.</span></em></p>Building an auto industry for the future that serves the needs of workers, companies and consumers alike will require innovative partnerships between the union and management.Peter Berg, Professor of Employment Relations; Director of Human Resources and Labor Relations, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2134372023-09-21T12:45:25Z2023-09-21T12:45:25ZReality TV show contestants are more like unpaid interns than Hollywood stars<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548929/original/file-20230918-29-jud5nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C0%2C3584%2C2619&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Country singer Adley Stump, a former contestant on NBC's hit reality show 'The Voice,' performs at an Air Force base in Washington state.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jblmpao/19564078650">Joint Base Lewis McChord/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In December 2018, John Legend <a href="https://twitter.com/johnlegend/status/1070158841499840512?s=20">joined then-newly elected U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez</a> to criticize the exploitation of congressional interns on Capitol Hill, most of whom worked for no pay.</p>
<p>Legend’s timing was ironic. </p>
<p>NBC’s “The Voice” had just announced that Legend would join as a judge. He would go on to <a href="https://talentrecap.com/the-voice-coaches-salary-how-much-do-nick-jonas-kelly-clarkson-john-legend-and-blake-shelton-make/">reportedly earn US$14 million</a> per season by his third year on the show. Meanwhile, all of the participants on “The Voice,” save for the winner, earned $0 for their time, apart from a housing and food stipend – much like those congressional interns.</p>
<p>The fall 2023 TV lineup will be saturated with low-cost reality TV shows like “The Voice”; for networks, it’s <a href="https://www.wsj.com/business/media/how-prime-time-tv-will-look-different-this-fall-63ff818c">an end-around</a> to the ongoing <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/negotiations-set-resume-striking-writers-hollywood-studios-rcna105230">TV writers</a> <a href="https://deadline.com/2023/09/actors-strike-picket-line-netflix-paramount-1235545964/">and actors</a> strikes. </p>
<p>Whether it’s “The Voice,” “House Hunters,” “American Chopper” or “The Bachelorette,” reality shows thrive thanks to a simple business model: They pay millions of dollars for big-name celebrities to serve as judges, coaches and hosts, while participants work for free or for paltry pay under the guise of chasing their dreams or gaining exposure. </p>
<p>These participants are the unpaid interns of the entertainment industry, even though it’s their stories, personalities and talent that draw the viewers. </p>
<h2>Dreams clash with reality</h2>
<p>To conduct research for my book, “<a href="https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783030445867">Getting Signed: Record Contracts, Musicians, and Power in Society</a>,” I interviewed musicians around the country. </p>
<p>The book was about the exploitative nature <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3gmjw/bad-deals-are-baked-into-the-way-the-music-industry-operates">of record contracts</a>. But during my research, I kept running into singers who had either auditioned for or participated in “The Voice.” </p>
<p>On “The Voice,” singers compete on teams headed by a celebrity coach. Following a blind audition and various elimination rounds, the <a href="https://www.mlive.com/entertainment/muskegon/2012/10/how_does_the_voice_work_your_c.html">live broadcasts</a> begin with four teams of five members apiece. These 20 contestants spend months working in Los Angeles and are <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/voice-mentors-contestants-money-1370215">provided with only their room and board</a>. Each week, at least one player is eliminated. At the end of each season, the winner receives $100,000 and a record contract. </p>
<p>While some viewers might see reality shows like “The Voice” as launching pads for music careers, many of the musicians I spoke with were disheartened by their experiences on the show.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EGkmybURE5c?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Contestants audition for ‘The Voice’ ahead of its 24th season.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Unlike “American Idol,” where a number of winners, from Kelly Clarkson to Jordan Sparks, have made it big, no winners of “The Voice” have become stars. The closest person to “making it” from “The Voice” <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/10/08/921574715/snl-nixes-morgan-wallen-appearance-after-singer-violates-covid-19-safety-protoco">is the controversial</a> country singer Morgan Wallen, who was infamously dropped by his <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/country-star-morgan-wallen-caught-video-using-n-word-label-n1256630">label and country radio</a> following the emergence of a video of him using a racial slur. And Wallen didn’t even win “The Voice”; in fact, he <a href="https://thevoice.fandom.com/wiki/Morgan_Wallen">barely made it past</a> the blind audition.</p>
<p>Former contestants repeatedly told me that the television exposure did little to help their careers. </p>
<p>Prior to joining the show, many of the musicians were trying to scratch out a living through touring or performing. They put their developing careers on pause to chase their dreams. </p>
<p>However, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15405702.2020.1733577">the show’s contracts have stipulated</a> that contestants cannot perform, sell their name, image and likeness, or record new music while on “The Voice.” (The Conversation reached out to NBC to see if this remains the case for the current season, but did not receive a comment.) </p>
<p>This leaves the 20 finalists with no means to sell their music, even as they spend up to eight months competing. When the show’s losers return to performing, many of them have little new material to promote. By the time they drop a new single or album and announce a tour, some of them told me that they had lost a good portion of their following. </p>
<p>There is one group of people who receive meaningful exposure from these shows: the coaches and judges. Several singers, such as Gwen Stefani and Pharell Williams, have used “The Voice” to jolt their stagnating music careers. While earning millions as coaches and judges, these stars even use the show to <a href="https://screenrant.com/the-voice-coaches-popstars-successful-music-careers-boost/">promote their music</a> – something the contestants themselves are barred from doing.</p>
<p>Paying these contestants is feasible. If Legend earned $13 million instead of $14 million, that spare million dollars could be dispersed to half of the contestants at $100,000 apiece – an amount that’s currently only reserved for the winner of the show. Cut the salaries of all four coaches by $1 million apiece, and it would free up enough money to pay all 20 contestants $200,000 each. </p>
<h2>A gold mine for networks</h2>
<p>“The Voice” is far from the only reality show to take advantage of the genre’s low overhead costs.</p>
<p>Over the past two decades, shows featuring Americans looking to buy houses or remodel their homes <a href="https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/how-hgtv-became-industry-juggernaut">have exploded in popularity</a>. HGTV cornered this market by creating popular shows such as “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0369117/">House Hunters</a>,” “<a href="https://www.hgtv.com/shows/flip-or-flop">Flip or Flop</a>” and “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1827882/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_property%2520brothers">Property Brothers</a>.” </p>
<p>Viewers might not realize just how profitable these shows are.</p>
<p>Take “House Hunters.” The show follows a prospective homebuyer as they tour three homes. Homebuyers featured on the show have noted that <a href="https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/06/house-hunters-true-story-of-being-on-the-show.html">they earn only</a> <a href="https://www.thelist.com/391705/heres-how-much-people-get-paid-to-be-on-house-hunters/">$500 for their work</a>, and <a href="https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/543696/how-much-do-you-get-paid-for-being-on-house-hunters">the episodes take</a> three to five days and about 30 hours to film. The show’s producers <a href="https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/house-hunters-do-the-realtors-on-the-show-get-paid.html/">don’t pay the realtors</a> to be on it.</p>
<p>The low pay for people on reality TV shows matches the low budget for these shows. A former participant wrote that episodes of “House Hunters” <a href="https://utahvalley360.com/2015/04/01/10-things-learned-filmed-hgtvs-house-hunters/">cost around $50,000</a> to film. Prime-time sitcoms, by comparison, have a $1.5 million to $3 million <a href="https://variety.com/2017/tv/news/tv-series-budgets-costs-rising-peak-tv-1202570158/">per episode budget</a>.</p>
<h2>Sidestepping the unions</h2>
<p>That massive budget gap between reality TV and sitcoms is not simply due to an absence of star actors. </p>
<p>Many scripted television shows are based in Los Angeles, where camera crews, stunt doubles, <a href="https://www.motionpicturecostumers.org/">costume artisans</a>, <a href="https://local706.org/about/">makeup artists and hair stylists</a> are unionized. But shows like “House Hunters,” which are filmed across the country, <a href="https://cmii.gsu.edu/files/2017/09/Beck-USG-FINAL-Film-Report-2014.pdf">will recruit crews from right-to-work states</a>. These are states where employees cannot be compelled to join a union or pay union dues as a condition of employment. For these reasons, unions have far less power in these states than they do in places traditionally associated with film and entertainment, such as California and New York. </p>
<p>That’s one reason why <a href="https://www.stage32.com/blog/acting-in-atlanta-everything-you-need-to-know-2319">TV production</a> started moving to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/07/20/1189065338/non-union-film-workers-trying-to-break-into-the-atlanta-scene-are-hit-hard-by-st">Atlanta</a> – what’s been dubbed the “<a href="https://time.com/longform/hollywood-in-georgia/">Hollywood of the South</a>” – where shows like “The Walking Dead” and “Stranger Things” have been filmed.</p>
<p>But in my research, I also learned that Knoxville, Tennessee, has become a reality TV mecca. Like Georgia, Tennessee is also a right-to-work state. In Knoxville, many working musicians join the city’s <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1108/9781839827686">low-paying entertainment apparatus</a> by taking gigs working on TV and film production crews in between shows and tours.</p>
<p>At a time when TV writers and actors are on strike, it is important to understand that the entertainment industry will try to exploit labor for profit whenever it can. </p>
<p>Reality TV is a way to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/reruns-reality-fill-out-strike-struck-fall-tv-season-2023-09-07/">undercut the leverage of striking workers</a>, whether it’s through their lack of unionized actors, or their use of nonunionized production crews.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of striking workers yell, hold signs and thrust their arms skyward." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548927/original/file-20230918-17-6dymb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548927/original/file-20230918-17-6dymb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548927/original/file-20230918-17-6dymb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548927/original/file-20230918-17-6dymb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548927/original/file-20230918-17-6dymb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548927/original/file-20230918-17-6dymb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548927/original/file-20230918-17-6dymb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">With actors and writers on strike, many networks and streaming services are featuring reality TV-heavy fall lineups.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/members-of-the-hollywood-actors-sag-aftra-union-walk-a-news-photo/1532794702?adppopup=true">David McNew/Getty Image</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Contestants, casts and crew members are starting to catch on. Many reality TV participants have said that they <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/08/12/scabs-actors-writers-strike-breakers/">feel like strike scabs</a>, and Bethenny Frankel of “Real Housewives” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/aug/18/we-wont-take-this-any-more-reality-tv-stars-battle-to-unionise">is reportedly trying to organize</a> her fellow reality performers.</p>
<p>Preying off contestants who are desperate for exposure, reality TV might just be the next labor battle in the entertainment industry. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://twitter.com/johnlegend/status/1070158841499840512?s=20">John Legend</a> put it, “Unpaid internships make it so only kids with means and privilege get the valuable experience.” </p>
<p>Reality TV does the same to aspiring actors, musicians and celebrities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213437/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Arditi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With the TV writers and actors strikes leaving networks with little scripted content, the fall 2023 lineup will be saturated with low-cost reality TV shows like ‘The Voice.’David Arditi, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Texas at ArlingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2135182023-09-15T12:37:05Z2023-09-15T12:37:05ZUS autoworkers launch historic strike: 3 questions answered<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548348/original/file-20230914-1089-crn4qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C4%2C2991%2C2065&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">United Auto Workers members rally after marching in the Detroit Labor Day Parade on Sept. 4, 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/united-auto-workers-members-and-others-gather-for-a-rally-news-photo/1645162801">Bill Pugliano via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The United Auto Workers union, or UAW, <a href="https://theconversation.com/us-autoworkers-may-wage-a-historic-strike-against-detroits-3-biggest-automakers-with-wages-at-ev-battery-plants-a-key-roadblock-to-agreement-210037">has told workers at three factories to go on strike</a> after failing to agree on new contracts with each of Detroit’s major automakers. The contracts expired at 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 14, 2023. By midnight, the union <a href="https://uaw.org/stand-strike-begins-big-three/">posted a strike declaration on its website</a>.</em> </p>
<p><em>The strike will force General Motors, Ford and Stellantis – the global company that builds Chrysler, Jeep, Ram and Dodge vehicles in North America – to halt some of their operations. “Tonight for the first time in our history we will strike all three of the Big Three at once,” <a href="https://www.facebook.com/uaw.union/videos/1047762633322736">UAW President Shawn Fain</a> announced about two hours before the negotiation deadline passed without a contract. The union is seeking higher pay, better benefits and assurances that large numbers of its members will work in the automakers’ <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/09/14/uaw-strike-demands-negotiations/">growing number of electric-vehicle factories</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>The Conversation U.S. asked <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=0KmQgfIAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Joshua Murray</a>, a sociologist who studies the automotive industry and its workers, to discuss the UAW’s strategy and explain why this strike is significant.</em></p>
<h2>1. How important is it that this strike is affecting all three Detroit automakers?</h2>
<p>Until now, the UAW had always gone on strike against one of the companies at a time. And in recent years, all workers employed by that automaker had walked off the job. That’s what happened in the previous UAW strike. In 2019, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/oct/25/uaw-united-auto-workers-general-motors-strike-deal">48,000 General Motors autoworkers refused to work</a> for 40 days. The UAW used this same tactic in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/26/automobiles/auto-strikes-history.html">strikes against GM in 2007 and 1970</a>.</p>
<p>While holding a strike against a few key plants breaks with recent UAW practices, it’s a strategy deeply rooted in the union’s history. <a href="https://twitter.com/UAW/status/1702083943174897746">UAW President Shawn Fain has invoked</a> the 1936-37 action known as the <a href="https://press.umich.edu/Books/S/Sit-Down2">Great Flint Sit-Down Strike</a>, when workers targeted what they referred to as General Motors’ “<a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p011993">mother plants</a>.”</p>
<p>Workers took over the plants by sitting down at their work stations at the end of the day and refusing to leave. By the time the strike was over, GM had agreed to sign a contract for the first time with the UAW. The union gained hundreds of thousands of new members, and <a href="https://guides.loc.gov/this-month-in-business-history/february/flint-michigan-sit-down-strike">autoworker pay grew sharply</a> in the months that followed.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/682956">Flint strike demonstrated</a> that strategically targeting a few factories can maximize the pressure put on companies, while minimizing both the number of workers affected and length of time affected workers must remain idle.</p>
<p>The UAW’s use of a similar approach now will reduce the risk of the union exhausting its <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-are-strike-funds-a-labor-management-relations-expert-explains-213212">US$825 million strike fund</a>, from which it must pay $500 per week to every UAW member who walks off the job.</p>
<p>Fain is calling the new approach a “<a href="https://uaw.org/standup/">stand-up strike</a>.” </p>
<p>“This strategy will keep the companies guessing,” <a href="https://www.facebook.com/uaw.union/videos/1047762633322736">he said in livestreamed remarks</a> shortly before the strike officially began. “It will give our national negotiators maximum leverage and flexibility in bargaining.”</p>
<p>Although the strike is starting at just a few plants, the union may halt all production later on. “If we need to go all out, we will,” <a href="https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/live-amid-looming-strike-uaw-president-shawn-fain-provides-updates-on-negotiations-with-detroit-3">Fain said</a>. “Everything is on the table.”</p>
<p>About 13,000 UAW workers at three sites – a GM assembly plant in Wentzville, Missouri; a Stellantis assembly plant in Toledo, Ohio, and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/auto-workers-targeted-strikes-general-motors-stellantis-ford-a0b4b8b66e2001230fda0f2114ef78a0">a Ford plant in Wayne, Michigan</a> – are the first to participate in this strike.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548549/original/file-20230915-17-5v4z7k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="In a black-and-white photo, several striking autoworkers read newspapers, sitting on car seats placed on the ground like sofas. They ignore the unfinished chassis behind them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548549/original/file-20230915-17-5v4z7k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548549/original/file-20230915-17-5v4z7k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548549/original/file-20230915-17-5v4z7k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548549/original/file-20230915-17-5v4z7k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548549/original/file-20230915-17-5v4z7k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548549/original/file-20230915-17-5v4z7k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548549/original/file-20230915-17-5v4z7k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sit-down strikers lounge at a General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan, in 1937.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dick Shelton/U.S. Farm Security Administration via Library of Congress</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. How would you define success or failure for the UAW’s new strategy?</h2>
<p>To understand why the union chose this strategy over a full-out work stoppage, it’s important to understand the nature of strikes and what makes them successful.</p>
<p>In the book “<a href="https://www.russellsage.org/publications/wrecked">Wrecked: How the American Automobile Industry Destroyed Its Capacity to Compete</a>,” sociologist Michael Schwartz and I analyzed the history of labor relations and production systems in the U.S. and Japanese auto industries to better understand the decline of Detroit’s Big Three automakers. In the process, we learned what determined the level of success of previous auto strikes. </p>
<p>A strike is essentially a <a href="https://economics.fandom.com/wiki/Chicken_game">game of chicken</a> between workers and management. Workers threaten the company’s viability by withholding their labor, going without paychecks to halt production. Companies protect themselves from strikes by stockpiling inventory so they can keep sales going. Workers protect themselves via their strike funds. </p>
<p>Generally, <a href="https://theconversation.com/united-auto-workers-strike-if-it-happens-should-channel-the-legacy-of-walter-reuther-who-led-the-union-at-the-peak-of-its-power-212324">strikes succeed</a> when they hurt a company’s bottom line so much that executives decide it makes financial sense to give in to the workers’ demands.</p>
<p>Strikes fail when workers can’t create enough disruption to pressure the company to give in before strike funds run out. They also fail when workers give in before securing a contract in line with their demands, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv6mtdg6.15">potentially ending up worse off</a> than if they had never walked off the job.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/04/04/1167902956/united-auto-workers-president-shawn-fain">Fain, who was elected UAW president in March 2023</a>, and the rest of his new leadership team seem to recognize the importance of surprising management and picking strategic targets in a way that many of the union’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-united-auto-workers-gm-strike-is-headed-for-failure-123945">previous leaders did not</a>. I believe that the UAW is likely to ultimately have more success with this strike than it has had in decades.</p>
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<h2>3. Is this strike likely to be historically significant?</h2>
<p>No doubt about it. No <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/14/business/deadline-uaw-strike-negotiations/index.html">Ford workers had gone on strike in the U.S. since 1978</a>. Chrysler workers, who are now employed by Stellantis, <a href="https://money.cnn.com/2007/10/10/news/companies/uaw_chrysler_deal/">last went on strike in 2007</a>. And U.S. autoworkers are targeting GM, Ford and Stellantis simultaneously for the first time in the union’s <a href="https://uaw.org/members/uaw-through-the-decades/">88-year history</a>.</p>
<p>But it’s not yet clear how historically significant it will be. </p>
<p>If the UAW’s “stand-up” strike strategy succeeds, I think it’s likely that other labor organizers will embrace it too – potentially improving the leverage other workers have in their contract negotiations and strikes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213518/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua Murray has received funding from the Russell Sage Foundation. </span></em></p>A work stoppage hitting the three largest American automakers at the same time is unprecedented.Joshua Murray, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2131112023-09-13T20:35:43Z2023-09-13T20:35:43ZStriking a balance: How the law regulates picket lines<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/striking-a-balance-how-the-law-regulates-picket-lines" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Picket lines are often the most visible feature of a labour dispute. And with the <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9867957/summer-strikes-canada/">recent uptick in strike action across the country</a> — from port workers in British Columbia to grocery chain employees in Toronto — Canadians have been more likely than usual to encounter one.</p>
<p>Picket lines are meant to disrupt business as usual, rally support and communicate a message — all in an effort to increase pressure on employers to reach a negotiated settlement.</p>
<p>While picketing is a legal expressive activity, how the right to picket squares with property rights and civil rights is not straightforward. </p>
<p>The common view is that while picketers may carry signs, they may not — or at least, should not — prevent others from crossing picket lines. The reality is more complicated. </p>
<h2>Legal context</h2>
<p>Picketing is almost exclusively regulated by courts. Historically, courts did <a href="https://cbr.cba.org/index.php/cbr/article/view/2368/2368">not look kindly upon picketing</a> and police forces were only too eager to enforce injunctions (court orders) or engage in other efforts to dismantle picket lines.</p>
<p>Today, courts are less keen to use the blunt instrument of an injunction to limit picketing. Intervening too quickly in a labour dispute is now seen as unfairly helping one side, namely employers. This shift in approach was heavily influenced by the connection the Supreme Court of Canada has drawn between picketing and freedom of expression. </p>
<p>According to the Supreme Court, picketing “<a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/1945/index.do">always involves expressive action</a>,” which is protected under the guarantee of freedom of expression in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. As such, the court ruled that picketing may only be limited to prevent “wrongful acts.”</p>
<p>Courts will consider criminal acts like violence and damage to property as reasons to limit picketing. But wrongful actions also include things like trespassing and nuisance (interfering with others’ lawful right to enter and exit). </p>
<p>Since the main function of a picket line is to discourage others from crossing, delaying others in order to provide the union an opportunity to convey its message is key. </p>
<p>So, how do courts find the right balance between the expressive rights of picketers and the property and civil rights of others — all while ensuring the general safety of everyone involved? Some inconvenience to employers and the public is an essential part of the equation.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man in jeans, a T-shirt and a ball cap hands a flyer to a passerby." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545339/original/file-20230829-28-ewe8xx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545339/original/file-20230829-28-ewe8xx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545339/original/file-20230829-28-ewe8xx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545339/original/file-20230829-28-ewe8xx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545339/original/file-20230829-28-ewe8xx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545339/original/file-20230829-28-ewe8xx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545339/original/file-20230829-28-ewe8xx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A striking TVO employee hands out flyers on the picket line outside of TVO offices in August 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby</span></span>
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<h2>Striking a balance</h2>
<p>Because the outcomes of judicial interventions are uncertain, employers and unions can benefit from negotiating non-binding picketing protocols in advance of any dispute.</p>
<p>Where they exist, protocols govern how picket lines will operate. For example, an employer may allow picketers to come onto private property to avoid creating dangerous traffic or public safety conditions. Or the parties may agree that people attempting to cross a picket line will be delayed a given amount of time, thereby allowing the union to communicate its message.</p>
<p>In fact, a refusal to even discuss a protocol in advance <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2004/2004canlii2565/2004canlii2565.html?resultIndex=1">may work against the refusing party</a> if a request for an injunction is later filed.</p>
<p>While the role of local police in labour disputes varies, it is now common for them to formally take a neutral stance and play no more than a mediating role with regard to public safety. While police are expected to keep the peace, they <a href="https://www.yrp.ca/en/about/resources/Labour_Disputes_Pamphlet.pdf">are not normally authorized to intervene on behalf of either party</a> engaged in the dispute. </p>
<p>When injunctions are issued, police do intervene to uphold court orders. But workers are generally still permitted to delay traffic, often with the proviso that <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/coop-workers-injunction-10-minutes-1.5410026">anyone who doesn’t want to hear the union’s message may proceed at will</a>.</p>
<p>Additionally, in issuing an injunction a judge may set further rules, for example, on the number of picketers or where they are permitted to picket.</p>
<p>The same balancing principles apply to <a href="https://www.cp24.com/news/metro-seeks-injunction-against-striking-workers-preventing-deliveries-to-stores-1.6535373">secondary picketing</a> (picketing against a third party to increase pressure on the struck employer). </p>
<p>For example, an <a href="https://77b90736.flowpaper.com/MetroOntarioIncvUniforanditsLocal414EndorsementdatedAugpdf/#page=1">injunction recently granted against Unifor,</a> the union representing striking Metro grocery workers in the Toronto area, restricted picketing workers from blockading the company’s distribution centres. </p>
<p>Yet the order still permitted picketers some <a href="https://77b90736.flowpaper.com/InterimOrderofJusticeChalmers/#page=1">leeway to continue stopping vehicles</a> for a prescribed amount of time. <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-metro-workers-1.6953627">The workers recently ratified a new collective agreement after their month-long strike</a>.</p>
<h2>Emotions can run high</h2>
<p>Strikes may be inconvenient for the public. For striking workers, they can be highly emotional affairs. If a strike drags on or becomes particularly heated, negotiated protocols and even injunctions <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/regina-coop-refinery-lockout-unifor_ca_5e42f45bc5b6f1f57f1989fd">may be ignored out of frustration, anger or a sense of urgency</a>. </p>
<p>Besides the legal questions at play, union members also stress moral arguments for respecting picket lines. A refusal to do so can <a href="https://macleans.ca/opinion/whats-the-point-of-a-picket-line-to-stop-scabs/">feel like a betrayal</a>, especially when those crossing the line are from within union ranks.</p>
<p>That’s because crossing a picket line almost inevitably weakens the union’s bargaining position, and, ironically, may help to prolong the dispute by alleviating pressure on the employer to come to a negotiated settlement. </p>
<p>“Naming and shaming” replacement workers — known as scabs — also <a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/13334/index.do">enjoys some constitutional protection</a>. </p>
<p>In short, the politics of picket lines can be complex, especially for members of the public encountering them for the first time. </p>
<p>No one wants a strike or lockout; they are stressful and full of uncertainty. While labour stoppages are typically used as a last resort to overcome a bargaining impasse, they can become lightning rods for unions, employers and members of the public. </p>
<p>Recognizing, however, that competing rights are at play is key to understanding how the law aims to uphold civil and property rights without jeopardizing workers’ freedom of expression.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213111/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alison Braley-Rattai receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Larry Savage receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.</span></em></p>When it comes to picket lines, courts aim to uphold civil and property rights without jeopardizing workers’ freedom of expression.Alison Braley-Rattai, Associate Professor, Labour studies, Brock UniversityLarry Savage, Professor, Labour Studies, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2134522023-09-13T07:35:40Z2023-09-13T07:35:40ZHigh Court ruling vindicates sacked Qantas workers but doesn’t stop the outsourcing of jobs in the future<p>Qantas faces a potentially huge compensation payout to sacked workers, in a further knock to the carrier’s already diminished reputation.</p>
<p>On Wednesday the airline <a href="https://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/HCA/2023/27.html">lost its bid</a> to have the High Court overturn a ruling that it unlawfully outsourced the jobs of around 1,683 ground crew, including baggage handlers, cleaners and tug drivers.</p>
<p>The ruling was the culmination of a long road for the Transport Workers’ Union, and the impacted employees, whose belief that their jobs were outsourced because Qantas wanted to avoid negotiating with them over their future pay and conditions was vindicated by the High Court.</p>
<p>In November 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Qantas made the outsourcing decision which made the ground crews across ten airports redundant, and saved Qantas an estimated $100 million a year in operating costs.</p>
<h2>The workers turn to the courts</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/FCA/2021/873.html">union took action</a> in the Federal Court of Australia, arguing the decision was made to avoid bargaining with those same workers for a new enterprise agreement, and to stop them taking protected industrial action. </p>
<p>In July 2021, Justice Lee in the Federal Court found that Qantas could not show it had not made the workers redundant for the reasons alleged by the union. Because the right to bargain and take industrial action are workplace rights under the Fair Work Act, this meant Qantas had taken adverse action against those employees in breach of the Act.</p>
<p>Justice Lee’s decision was upheld by the Full Federal Court of Australia in <a href="https://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/FCAFC/2022/71.html">May 2022</a>, and on Wednesday was unanimously upheld by the High Court. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/qantas-chief-alan-joyce-quits-early-amid-customer-fury-at-the-airline-212845">Qantas chief Alan Joyce quits early, amid customer fury at the airline</a>
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<p>Qantas will now be required to pay compensation to the employees concerned and penalties for breaches of the <a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/fwa2009114/s340.html">Fair Work Act</a> – with those amounts to be determined by Justice Lee in the Federal Court.</p>
<p>While the workers have been vindicated, the ruling does not mean employers cannot make outsourcing decisions, or that those former Qantas employees will get their jobs back. It doesn’t even mean Qantas will suffer substantial harm beyond what is likely to be a hefty bill.</p>
<p>As demonstrated after its 2011 worldwide lockout and shutdown, Qantas seems willing and able to absorb both financial pain and substantial damage to its reputation in pursuit of its industrial objectives. </p>
<h2>So, what does the ruling mean?</h2>
<p>It is important to understand that the case turned on very narrow principles of law and findings of fact. </p>
<p>When making a decision that affects an employee, an employer must not make that decision because the employee has workplace rights, or to prevent the employee exercising their workplace rights. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/will-it-be-greener-pastures-for-qantas-as-alan-joyce-takes-off-212848">Will it be greener pastures for Qantas as Alan Joyce takes off?</a>
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<p>The Fair Work Act does not prevent employers making business decisions. Qantas was lawfully able to make a decision to outsource its ground handling staff. And it was entitled to base its decision on legitimate business grounds, including factors such as cost, profit and convenience. </p>
<p>What it was not entitled to do was to include, as a reason for the outsourcing decision, seeking to avoid engaging in collective bargaining with those employees or to avoid them exercising their right to strike. </p>
<p>Qantas could not prove this was not an operative or substantial part of its reasoning.</p>
<h2>A rare win for the unions</h2>
<p>The High Court case is significant, but not because it makes a precedent that employers cannot outsource their workforces.</p>
<p>It is significant because the union won. And these cases are notoriously hard to win. Because they turn on the subjective reasons of the decision maker, which can be very difficult to challenge in practice. </p>
<p>Furthermore, it is hard to get injunctive relief to prevent decisions taken for prohibited reasons before they can be implemented. </p>
<p>In the Federal Court, the union sought reinstatement of the workers impacted by Qantas’s unlawful actions. </p>
<p>But the egg was already scrambled – the workers had been made redundant, and the work outsourced to external providers and their employees (with less generous industrial arrangements). Third-party interests had got involved. So, the Federal Court refused the reinstatement request. </p>
<p>This leaves the compensation and penalties payments that Qantas now faces potentially as just a cost of doing business.</p>
<h2>So what has come out of this ruling?</h2>
<p>The lessons we can draw from the decision are threefold.</p>
<p>First, the laws that protect our workers in the exercise of their rights need to be strengthened so the victory of the Transport Workers’ Union does not stand as an anomaly. </p>
<p>Second, early injunctive relief in these cases should be easier to access so workers rights are preserved, and courts are not left attempting to compensate workers once the damage is done and cannot be undone.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-will-putting-the-interests-of-qantas-ahead-of-qatar-airways-cost-1-billion-per-year-and-a-new-wave-of-protectionism-of-legacy-carriers-212495">What will putting the interests of Qantas ahead of Qatar Airways cost? $1 billion per year and a new wave of protectionism of legacy carriers</a>
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<p>Third, this decision won’t prevent businesses outsourcing to avoid negotiating enterprise agreements with their workers – not where they can show legitimate business reasons for their actions that do not involve any substantive prohibited reasons. </p>
<p>The solution to the outsourcing problem lies in multi-employer and industry-level bargaining. It shouldn’t be significantly cheaper to outsource your workers. If all employers within a sector have to pay the same rates through multi-employer or industry-level agreements, the incentive to outsource falls away.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213452/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shae McCrystal does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The embattled airline may be forced to compensate almost 2000 workers as a result of the ruling.Shae McCrystal, Professor of Labour Law, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2132122023-09-12T12:29:16Z2023-09-12T12:29:16ZWhat are strike funds? A labor-management relations expert explains<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548479/original/file-20230915-31-ys5ifx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C25%2C5626%2C3521&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Striking United Auto Workers picket at Ford's Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Mich., shortly after midnight Friday, Sept. 15, 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/AutoWorkersStrike/bfb295348888431e9f0df76f97963033/photo?Query=uaw&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1960&currentItemNo=3">AP Photo/Paul Sancya</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When people go on strike, their employers don’t pay them. That makes it <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/how-to-survive-a-strike">hard for workers who have walked off the job to keep paying their bills</a>. Union members have an advantage during strikes because they can get help with housing, food and other <a href="https://definitions.uslegal.com/s/strike-fund/">essential expenses through payments from strike funds</a>.</p>
<p>These payments only cover basic expenses and generally don’t fully replace lost income.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.routledge.com/Trade-Union-Finance-How-Labor-Organizations-Raise-and-Spend-Money/Masters-Gibney/p/book/9781003335474">Members pay dues and fees</a> to finance their unions. Every month, members of the United Auto Workers, for example, pay the <a href="https://uaw.org/dues-faq/">equivalent of what they earn in two hours</a> to their union. New members can also be required to pay a one-time initiation fee that’s much higher. The <a href="https://www.sagaftra.org/membership-benefits/membership-costs">Screen Actors Guild’s initiation fee is US$3,000</a>.</p>
<p>Beyond covering day-to-day operations, union dues accumulate for future uses, including strike funds. Once a strike is authorized, members in good standing are eligible to receive either a fixed dollar amount or a percentage of their earnings as outlined in the union’s <a href="https://uaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/2018-UAW-Constitution.pdf">constitution and bylaws</a>. </p>
<p>Union members have traditionally reported to a local union’s office on a specific day and time to pick up their strike benefits. Some unions are seeing if they can rely instead on <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/2023/09/11/uaw-strike-pay-signup-detroit-three-bargaining/70822926007/">electronic distribution systems</a>.</p>
<h2>Why strike funds matter</h2>
<p>When unions have amassed large strike funds, it can force employers to take the threat of a strike seriously because it signals that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/irj.12374">workers can stay off the job</a> longer. That, in turn, can help unions win more of their demands during contract negotiations.</p>
<p>Other sources of financial support during strikes are limited. </p>
<p>Two states, New York and New Jersey, allow workers to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/09/where-workers-on-strike-can-qualify-for-unemployment-benefits.html">collect unemployment benefits while they’re on strike</a>. <a href="https://voiceofoc.org/2023/09/a-bill-allowing-striking-workers-to-collect-unemployment-heads-to-gov-newsom/">California’s legislature approved a similar measure on Sept. 14, 2023</a>. But for the most part, U.S. workers can’t get jobless benefits during strikes.</p>
<p>Charity can play a role as well, depending on the industry. Some of the screenwriters and actors who went on strike in mid-2023 have been getting support from nonprofits like the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/hollywood-strikes-donations-actors-writers-0a8df24c6d73f4075df32f5143592cce">Entertainment Community Fund</a> and the <a href="https://www.wmagazine.com/culture/sag-aftra-strike-celebrity-donations">SAG-AFTRA Foundation</a> – to which celebrities like George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio, Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson, Meryl Streep and Oprah Winfrey have each given at least $1 million to help Hollywood workers get by while they’re not getting paychecks.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547594/original/file-20230911-29-h1abcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=94%2C82%2C4118%2C2526&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Women on a picket line holding signs saying that the Writer's Guild and SAG AFTRA unions are on strike." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547594/original/file-20230911-29-h1abcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=94%2C82%2C4118%2C2526&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547594/original/file-20230911-29-h1abcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547594/original/file-20230911-29-h1abcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547594/original/file-20230911-29-h1abcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547594/original/file-20230911-29-h1abcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547594/original/file-20230911-29-h1abcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547594/original/file-20230911-29-h1abcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Actor and writer Marissa Carpio pickets with SAG-AFTRA members in front of Netflix offices in August 2023 in New York City.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/marissa-carpio-joins-sag-aftra-members-as-they-maintain-news-photo/1636100727?adppopup=true">John Nacion/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>United Auto Workers on strike</h2>
<p>The UAW went on strike against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis – the company that makes Chrysler vehicles – after its negotiations with the three Detroit-based automakers didn’t <a href="https://apnews.com/article/auto-workers-general-motors-stellantis-ford-strike-0c41761e174236151a29cc698f5dc7d5">result in a contract by 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 14, 2023</a>.</p>
<p>The union has committed to <a href="https://uaw.org/uaw-delegates-vote-increase-strike-pay-500-per-week-available-first-day-strike/">making weekly payments from its strike fund of $500 per week</a>, <a href="https://uaw.org/strike-faq-2/">plus some benefits</a>, to all striking workers. Its members’ pay varies, but the highest earners at unionized U.S. automotive assembly factories can make up to <a href="https://fox59.com/news/national-world/why-the-united-auto-workers-union-is-poised-to-go-on-strike-this-week/">$32 an hour</a> – $1,280 per week – plus benefits.</p>
<p>The UAW has about <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/08/25/uaw-strike-fund-gm-stellantis-ford">$825 million in its strike fund</a>. That money could probably last for 12 weeks if all of its <a href="https://uaw.org/97-uaws-big-three-members-vote-yes-authorize-strike/">nearly 150,000 members</a> working for automakers were to go on strike at one time. But the union is initially targeting <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/14/uaw-strikes-ford-gm-stellantis.html">only three factories</a>, with 13,000 workers walking off the job. This tactic will help ensure that its workers can stay on strike longer.</p>
<p><em>This article was updated on Sept. 15, 2023, to indicate that the UAW strike had begun and that the California legislature had passed a bill allowing workers on strike to get unemployment benefits.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213212/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ray Gibney does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When unions amass large sums of money to parcel out to workers, it can give them more leverage in negotiations with employers.Ray Gibney, Associate Professor of Management, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.