Back in June, I wrote that the potential Teamsters strike against UPS would’ve been the largest since Reagan. That strike didn’t happen.
Instead, the Teamsters secured a historically strong contract “with no givebacks to the company” that fulfilled most, but not all, of their demands. The strike threat and the contract won are both successes of the “rank-and-file strategy” that elected aggressive union leadership.
The Teamsters aren’t alone: In the months since, we’ve seen dozens of strikes from major unions, newly emboldened by more-radical members and leaders.
Hot Labor Summer is over, but Hot Labor Fall is just getting started.
Workers are striking at 20-year high rates
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) regularly releases data on the number of striking workers. In particular, BLS series WSU020 measures the number of workers currently on a “work stoppage” (strike or lockout) that involves over 1,000 workers in a given time period. This metric is not perfect – it ignores strikes in small workplaces! – but it’s still a decent estimate of strike activity.
Here’s what the monthly data looks like, with my manual calculation for September 2023:
Note that the white line (a moving average) has jumped higher than it has been in decades!
The last time when the US saw this level of large, sustained strikes was 2000 – when the 135,000-strong SAG + AFTRA struck for better conditions nationwide and the 85,000-strong CWA + IBEW struck for better conditions at Verizon.
That jump is also easily visible in the yearly data, where “2023” number includes striking workers for January-September (3/4 of a year):
Those jumps in 2018, 2019, and 2023 should be cause for celebration among socialists and progressives. We are seeing a strike wave stronger than it’s been in decades.
At the same time, current strike levels are similar to those in the 1990’s and below the 1980’s. Neither decade was good for median wages (which stagnated) or union strength (which enormously declined).
We have to aim higher.
Most Americans support the strikes – with a sharp partisan split
Fortunately, the vast majority of Americans are on our side.
In a September 2023 Ipsos poll, 58% of Americans supported the UAW strike and 60% the writers/actors strikes:
Democrats, Independents, and Americans as a whole overwhelmingly supported both strikes. In contrast, Republicans were evenly split:
Among Democrats, the UAW strike had +51% net support and the writers/actors strikes +65% net support.
Among Independents, the strikes had +41% and +48% net support.
Among Republicans, the strikes had +1% and 0% net support.
That support goes far beyond these specific strikes. In an August 2022 Gallup poll, support for labor unions reached 71%. That level of support is higher than any time since 1965 (71%) and equal to the level in 1936 (72%), the last time when labor unions saw real growth:
Why has union membership declined?
Unfortunately, that broad support for unions in principle has not yet motivated non-unionized members to join unions in practice. Across the US, the percent of jobs represented by unions has continued to decline.
Why?
One reason could be lack of interest. For example, some libertarian authors have (correctly) noted that just 20% of non-unionized Americans are “interested” in joining a union. But, as the Economic Policy Institute notes, that’s still 60 million Americans – twice as many as are in unions!
In fact, we have seen an increase of union membership. For example, the NLRB reports that union elections jumped by 60% from 2021 to 2022 – and union employment increased by 200,000 from 2021 to 2022.
But non-union employment grew even faster, so the share of jobs represented by a union dropped from 11.6% to 11.3%.
We don’t yet know the trends for 2023, but it’s fair to be pessimistic. The long trend of declining manufacturing and increasing service employment will probably continue. Across the Global North, unions have struggled to unionize service jobs. So far, no Global North country has seen a major re-unionization, driven by a new kind of organizing for service jobs. However, in the United States, the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) has seen major success in organizing workplaces like Starbucks.
As a result, the overall outlook for unions is bittersweet: Existing unions are growing stronger and more radical, while the share of unionized jobs grows lower and lower.
Want to join a union and reverse that decline? Reach out to the EWOC, which will guide you through the steps!
Who’s on strike in October 2023?
Want to re-unionize America? Here are four big strikes worth your support!
Hotel workers: 20,000 members of UNITE HERE Local 11 are using rolling strikes to demand living wages from hotels across Los Angeles and Orange County – support directly or support through DSA!
Media workers: 160,000 members of SAG-AFTRA are striking to demand better conditions from media companies across the country – support directly or support through DSA!
SAG-AFTRA voted 98% to 2% to expand this strike to include video game companies if they reject SAG-AFTRA’s contract.
Vehicle factory workers: 25,000 members of United Auto Workers (UAW) are striking to demand better conditions against the “Big Three” auto makers – support directly or support through DSA!
Medical workers: 1,700 members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 4-200 are striking to demand safe staffing levels at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital – [no support links yet]
And here are three large strikes coming to a close – all with major wins for workers:
Media workers: 11,500 members of the Writers Guild of America West and East (WGA) are striking to demand better conditions across the country – tentative agreement reached September 25, with big gains for workers
Education workers: 1,500 members of the Evergreen Education Association (part of the National Education Association, NEA) struck to demand better pay and more special education support against Evergreen Public Schools – mostly successful, contract signed September 11
Locomotive factory workers: 1,400 members of United Electrical Workers (UE) Locals 506 and 618 struck for better conditions against Wabtec – mostly successful, contract signed August 31
Summary and shilling
In short: More workers are striking – and winning – than in decades. That’s a major success of the rank-and-file strategy. However, neither increased militancy or increased public support has yet increased union membership. Clearly, we also need to organize the unorganized.
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