Why are so many workers on strike?

There are a number of reasons, but ultimately it comes down to how the pandemic has changed the way people see themselves, their employers and their jobs — especially if going to work heightened their risk of exposure to the deadly virus. So while millions of people quit or switched positions, others have staged walkouts — or at least are threatening to. “People don’t want to go and die at work. I mean, they’re not compensated enough,” said Kim Cordova, president of the 23,000-member United Food and Commercial Workers in Colorado. Strikes or strike authorizations — when a union supports a walkout if negotiations with management break down — typically revolve around compensation. At John Deere, where 10,000 workers at 14 factories walked off the job on Oct. 14, employees want better pay and retirement benefits. The company offered 5 to 6 percent raises in a new collective bargaining agreement, but workers say it’s not enough, given the company’s soaring profits. Kaiser Permanente nurses and health workers in California and Oregon want the health care provider to drop a proposed two-tiered wage and benefits system that would compensate new employees less than existing ones. More than 30,000 workers represented by several unions authorized a strike in an Oct. 11 vote. More than 1,400 Kellogg workers in Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Michigan and Tennessee went on strike on Oct. 5, seeking better benefits, vacation time and trying to defeat a two-tier wage system. Several hundred of those employees returned to work on Tuesday after the company threatened to hire a contractor to replace them. Other workers are using strike drives to try to improve workplace culture. A walkout at Chicago tortilla-maker El Milagro was tied to requests for better safeguards against sexual harassment and coronavirus safety protocols. Management responded to the work stoppage by locking workers out of its factories; executives have not responded publicly to employees’ concerns. Workers at a West Virginia producer of industrial pump parts went on strike Oct. 1 seeking better seniority rights.

Do the strikes have anything to do with the “Great Resignation?”

The “Great Resignation” is the term some economists are using to describe how workers are reevaluating their jobs nearly two years into the pandemic. A record 4.3 million people — or nearly 3 percent of the U.S. workforce — quit their jobs in August alone, Labor Department data shows. So many businesses need employees, economists say, that working people have more leverage than they’ve had in many years. Millions of people are venturing into the job market in search of better wages and working conditions. For others, though, it’s provided the impetus to strike — success can mean more pay and benefits without starting over somewhere else.

How many workers are on strike?

Some 17,400 U.S. workers went on strike in October, according to a Bloomberg Law work stoppage database. Of the 119 union strikes so far this year, 15 are “major” strikes involving 1,000 or more individuals, according to the database. That compares with nine major strikes in 2020, when the pandemic took hold, and 30 in 2019. Data on U.S. work stoppages is not centralized, so it is difficult to draw direct comparisons between years. But it is clear, economists say, that the 2021 strike movement is historic in both its size and the way it spans across industries. In 2019, strikes mainly occurred among public-sector and health care workers, according to Labor Department and Bloomberg Law data. That trend continued in 2020: Aside from a 10,000-person carpenters strike in Massachusetts in April, 34,000 of the 58,000 workers involved in union-involved strikes were by educators or health service workers. This year, manufacturing workers made up 47 percent of those who began strikes, data show, while education and health services represented 36 percent. In January, 1,400 workers walked out at Hunts Point Produce Market in New York seeking better pay. In March, 1,300 workers in five states from Allegheny Technologies struck over wages and health care premiums. Numbers spiked in recent months after strikes at major corporations including Nabisco (1,000 workers struck for 40 days), Frito-Lay (600 workers struck for 19 days), Kellogg (1,000 workers have been on strike since Oct. 5) and John Deere (10,000 workers have been on strike since Oct. 14).

Have the strikes been effective for workers?

Results are mixed, economists and labor leaders say. Nabisco and Frito-Lay workers won big concessions from their employers, and both groups returned to work in September. Nabisco workers received $5,000 bonuses, annual raises and increased contributions into employees’ 401(k) accounts. Frito-Lay workers stopped their strike after the company agreed to wage increases and a guarantee of at least one day off each week. Hollywood production workers secured concessions from television and film studios after threatening to strike, including mandatory 10-hour break periods between shifts, a 54-hour weekend, 25 percent pay increases for lower-level workers and a $400 million contribution to pension accounts. Those new contracts have galvanized other strike drives across the country, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in an interview. Others, though, are still on the picket line — or have returned to work — without winning much from their employers. Coal miners in Alabama have been on strike since April asking for better wages and more vacation time. Their employer, Warrior Met, has continued operations with a nonunionized workforce, and Alabama state police have escorted those workers to the mine through picket lines in recent weeks. Kellogg and John Deere have both run their factories without union members. But 400 Kellogg mechanics broke their strike on Oct. 19 after the company threatened to contract out their work to a third-party vendor.

What do all these strikes mean for my job?

Short term, the rise in strikes contributes to the existing worker shortage, said Julia Pollak, a labor economist for job site ZipRecruiter. That means there are more job openings and fewer workers to take them, giving all sorts of workers more leverage. In the long term, Pollak said, the worker shortage doesn’t fix itself — it’s going to take employers offering better pay to attract and retain new employees. That means it’s a good time, Pollak said, to ask for a raise. Businesses are beginning to realize that in many cases it costs more to onboard a new hire than to pay current employees a bit more. It’s also a good time to look at job openings in your field, she said, even if you don’t plan on leaving your current position. It can at least give you a better sense of the wages, benefits and working conditions other employers offer, and you can determine whether you’re missing out. “Underpaid workers assume that all companies underpay, and they don’t,” Pollak said. That’s why they don’t leave their jobs, because they assume their outside opportunities will be just as bad as their current job. “I think what is happening now is you have all this information available about different jobs and different companies and working conditions. And when people are poached and they actually then find out about the alternatives, it can be life-changing.”

What do all these strikes mean for the broader economy?

Economists are not entirely sure mostly because it’s unclear what it will take to placate workers. John Deere offered employees raises of 5 to 6 percent, but union officials said the proposed contract didn’t meet workers’ retirement and wage goals. Warrior Met, the Alabama coal mine, offered workers marginal annual raises in a new contract, but workers rejected the deal. If workers can extract better compensation and benefits, it could help tamp down rising income inequality, said William M. Rodgers III, director of the Institute for Economic Equity at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Even if strikes contribute to a near-term worker shortage that slows the economy’s pandemic recovery, middle- and working-class individuals and families could see more income and spending power, he said, that will be better for the economy in the long-term. A lot of those outcomes will depend on inflation, said Rodgers and Pollak, the ZipRecruiter economist. If more workers have more money, the other currency in circulation becomes less valuable. That could hurt consumers, who are already dealing with inflation . And businesses are dealing with inflationary problems, too. Labor costs more, so does moving products because of backed up supply chains. Even if businesses have to raise prices on consumers to make up for those expenses, Pollak said, the economic benefits of workers making better wages are greater than the cost to consumers of having to pay more for basic goods and services. But there are simple things businesses can do to stave off inflation, Pollak said. When wages rise high enough, they draw people back into the workforce: maybe someone comes out of retirement or a stay-at-home parent takes a part-time job. That increases the job applicant pool and brings down labor costs. Companies can innovate their operations, she said, and invest in programs or machinery that lessen their reliance on labor. They can also tweak their products or services to cut costs, Pollak said. For example, restaurant chain Wing Stop added chicken thighs to its menu to defray the rising cost of chicken wings . “Yes, you can have wage-growth-fueled inflation that kind of nullifies those real gains [in wages],” she said. “But inflation is a funny thing. And when you have a very competitive market, there are often ways to avoid those inflationary costs.”

Workplace strikes are surging in the tight job market, a sign of workers’ new leverage

Factory workers, nurses and school bus drivers are among the tens of thousands of Americans who walked off jobs in October amid a surge of labor activism that economists and labor leaders have dubbed “Striketober.”

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The strike drives, experts say, stem from the new leverage workers hold in the nation’s tight job market: Having seen the massive profits their companies collected during the coronavirus pandemic, they want their contributions acknowledged in the form of better pay and working conditions.

While work stoppages may contribute to near-term inflation and production tie-ups, economists say they could fundamentally change the economic standing of millions of workers. Here’s what you need to know about the tide of recent strikes.

Workplace strikes are surging. Here’s why they won’t stop anytime soon.

Economists say the walkouts could contribute to near-term inflation but, over time, fundamentally change the economic standing of millions of workers.