Strikes Are On The Rise; Are Labor Unions Missing Their Moment?
Striking SAG-AFTRA members picket with striking WGA (Writers Guild of America) workers outside Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank, California. Mario Tama/Getty Images hide caption
Striking SAG-AFTRA members picket with striking WGA (Writers Guild of America) workers outside Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank, California.
Mario Tama/Getty ImagesStrikes. Picketing. Protests. One thing has become clear across dozens of industries in recent years. Workers are dissatisfied.
To resolve some of their workplace qualms, many workers have taken to organizing. Even workers at companies like Starbucks and Amazon, notorious for their anti-union tactics, were undeterred from forming unions. But unions, and the collective bargaining agreements they try to secure, are often stalled by employers.
Enter, strikes.
A study from Cornell found that strikes were up by 52 percent in 2o22 and involved more than 224,000 workers. And while more than 16 million workers in the United States (about 1 in 10) were represented by a union in 2022, the share of workers represented by a union is declining.
That's because union jobs are growing at a slower rate than non-union jobs.
It's all happening at a time when most Americans are expressing support for unions. The tight labor market is also in the worker's favor. So, why aren't unions booming?
How can unions regain power in the labor market? And can strikes once again convince companies to meet worker demands?
Director of Research of WorkRise at the Urban Institute Kate Bahn, Labor Historian and Professor of History at Rhode Island University Erik Loomis join us for the conversation. Also with us, Mary Kay Henry, the International President of the Service Employees International Union, and Christian Sweeney. He's the Deputy Director of Organizing for the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.
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