Worker strikes are on the rise — here’s why

(NewsNation) — About 50% more workers went on strike in 2022 compared to the year prior, and 2023 could be headed in the same direction. 

Strikes by organizations like the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and Writers Guild of America (WGA) have dominated the headlines by striking together for the first time in decades. 

But the increase in work stoppages is driven largely by food service workers — like Starbucks employees — as well as teachers and transportation workers, according to data analyzed by the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University.

That research additionally found that more workers were involved in those stoppages — reaching a 60% increase over the same period.

Despite those numbers, the 2022 unionization rate was the lowest on record, according to the BLS. 

Also, those figures from 2022 don’t surpass Department of Labor Statistics figures from the 1970s, or increases reported between 2018 and 2019.

However, Northwestern University theater professor and union actor Cindy Gold said increasingly, her students understand the value of a union — more so than the generations before them. 

“The kids are getting a little harder, a little stronger, a little more muscular in their understanding of what unions do for them,” Gold said. “There’s no joking amongst kids anymore about why unions are important.”

It’s not a coincidence workers came out of the COVID-19 pandemic more willing to voice their dissatisfaction with their jobs, said Harry Holzer, an economist at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. 

During the thick of the pandemic, many employees enjoyed the flexibility of working from home, potentially accruing savings, giving workers opportunities to leave for other jobs and improving their negotiating power.

Alternatively, some workers were asked to do more with less or put their own health and safety on the line, which could have been a tipping point for workers already unhappy in their careers, Holzer said. 

Overwhelmingly, pay, staffing, and health and safety concerns were among workers’ top issues, according to Cornell’s data.

“Workers started expecting to be treated better, to get more wage increases, and they’re still expecting it,” Holzer said. “Now, that might change, but it’s very hard to predict how these things are going to go.”

Food service workers have been the leaders in stoppages from 2021 to 2022, Cornell’s research found, followed by educators, transportation workers and warehouse staff.

Late last month, workers at 150 Starbucks locations announced they would go on strike after the chain allegedly removed Pride month merchandise in response to anti-LGBTQ backlash. 

A Starbucks store in Buffalo, New York, became the first U.S. location to unionize in December 2021. Several stores in other cities and states followed suit. 

Those smaller-scale strikes aren’t likely to make a major economic impact on a national level. SAG-AFTRA’s 160,000 members, however, could make a splash, and a UPS strike could have immediate, personal impacts nationwide, Holzer said. 

Teamsters, the union representing more than 340,000 members working for UPS, voted last month to authorize one of the largest strikes in U.S. history if a deal isn’t reached by the end of the month. 

“If UPS goes out on strike, that will dwarf all of these things,” Holzer said.