The United States On Strike
A stirke with a sign saying "Fight Today For A Better Tomorrow.” Photo Via Pexel, Taken By Markus Spiske
More than 100 days ago on May 1, 2023, the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) announced that they would be going on strike the following morning. According to their website, they want higher and fairer pay for writers due to the increased demand for streaming, better residuals for writers and to ban the use of AI in writing. Other organizations, such as the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (Sag-Aftra), joined the strike to request better pay and treatment for actors and entertainment talents. As of September 25th, these strikes are seemingly nearing an end as the final contract is being written with the striking party getting what they’ve requested, according to this tweet with a message from Adam Conover.
Outside of the entertainment industry, UPS’s union announced they were going on strike to demand increased pay and vacation time for their workers, as well as better A/C in their vehicles. These conditions were met before the strike began in order to avoid a massive disruption to the shipping industry as a whole. Now, on September 21, the United Auto Workers (UAW) went on strike against three of the biggest motor companies in America: Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler. According to @UAW on X (Twitter), the goal of these strikes is to increase worker wages and access to medical benefits.
These are only three of the hundreds of estimated strikes occurring in the United States today. Whether the strikes are for better pay, healthcare, vacations, working conditions, or a combination of these demands, many unions are fighting for what they believe they deserve.
However, much of the coverage of these major labor actions feels sudden and out of the blue. So, why is everyone striking?
The most obvious answer seems to be the changes in the past few years to the economy. Looking at the inflation rate over the past few years in the United States of America, the average inflation rate before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic was around 2%. Inflation went all the way down to 0.12% in May of 2020, around two months into the pandemic. After that, it kept increasing to an extreme high of 9.06% in June of 2022.
Even though the percentage has gone down since then, the average inflation rate for 2023 has been 4.53%. The increase in inflation rates has increased the price of everyday goods. For example, the average price of food-related items went up 11% between the start of 2021 and the end of 2022, a trend that has not reversed over the past year.
The demands in these strikes in relation to wages could be due to the growing class disparity in the United States. Even before COVID-19, according to Pew Research, the upper class held around 79% of the total income in the United States, the middle class had 17% and the lower class had only 4% of the total income. This past year alone, as reported by The Guardian, the top 1% of earners in the United States have earned 45% of all income, while the remaining 99% shared the remaining 55% of income. All of this while coming down from peak unemployment rates due to COVID-19 in 2020 of 8.1%. This mixture of increases in the cost of goods and the disparity between income are, at least in part, contributing to the large amount of strikes occurring in the United States.
However, it’s not just the economy that’s led to mass striking. In June of this year, 150+ Starbucks stores went on strike due to the company’s decision to not allow stores to put up LGBTQ+ flags and other pro-LGBTQ+ decorations in support of Pride Month. As previously mentioned, the UPS workers went on strike for better A/C in their vans. Bus drivers in Alaska went on strike in hopes of getting safer vehicles. People strike against being unsatisfied with the conditions they’re working in; whether economical, social, or safety-based.
The most uplifting part about these strikes is that from the examples listed, most of them have ended in a positive manner, bringing better conditions to everyday workers. As the WGA put in their message from earlier, “...everything we have gained… is due to the willingness of this membership to exercise its power, walk side-by-side, to endure the pain and uncertainty of the past 146 days. It is the leverage generated by your strike…that finally brought the companies back to the table to make a deal.” It’s through the collective power of the many standing their ground that leads to these better conditions for the everyday worker.