Some major strikes are threatening to paralyze entire sectors of the economy amid employers’ stubborn resistance to workers’ push for a bigger slice of the economic pie.
Beleaguered aerospace and defense giant Boeing is holding firm against workers’ demands for wage increases, better pensions and more input into product safety, with a strike by 33,000 unionized West Coast workers entering its second month, and the company hitting back with plans to slash 10% of its workforce as revenues plummet.
Earlier this month, a strike by 45,000 dockworkers up and down the US East and Gulf Coasts threatened to disrupt trade for the first time in nearly half a century over a contract covering about 25,000 workers seeking better salaries, pensions and health care.
The three-day strike was frozen shortly after starting as the International Longshoremen’s Association agreed to a January 15 deadline to reach a new contract.
On October 1, 200,000 workers with the American Postal Workers Union held a National Day of Action demanding safer working conditions, better pay, an end to a two-tier wage system, and an end to attempts by management to have fewer employees do more work.
The growing fortitude of the blue-collar workforce was likely inspired by examples from last year of what successful industrial action looks like, with workers in publishing, education, the United Auto Workers union and even Hollywood striking for better pay and conditions.
The UAW’s month-and-a-half long strike in particular proved that companies have the cash for wage and cost of living adjustments, overtime and retirement benefits, and even protections against plant closures.