2023-08-18 23:03:18
The United States is experiencing one of the busiest summers of union activity in the last three decades. This is stated in various international media, where it is explained that the phenomenon is due, in part, to the fact that the pandemic delayed salary updates, among other claims from the different sectors that mobilized throughout July.
One of the most publicized strikes was that of unionized Hollywood actors, screenwriters and employees in the SAG-AFTRA union, which began on July 14. 17,000 actors and 11,500 scriptwriters demonstrate for salary claims and once morest the impact of Artificial Intelligence in the industry, among other demands.
For their part, in recent days a measure of force by 340,000 employees of the United Parcel Service (UPS) postal company was avoided, a decision that, if materialized, would have an impact on ten days of strike of US$7,000 million for the company.
Amazon and Mc’Donalds also had similar experiences this year, although minor. In addition, baristas, national park bus drivers, booksellers, lawyers, locomotive plant workers, sour cream makers, hotel housekeepers, and brewery workers have stopped so far this year.
Workers who stopped each month from 2023 until July 20 – Washington Post and Bloomberg Law
Meanwhile, another major strike by some 150,000 metalworkers at Detroit’s three big automakers (Ford, Stellantis and General Motors) is expected for September unless workers receive double-digit wage increases.
Cornell University, headquartered in Ithaca, New York, did an analysis in early August of the ongoing strikes, and the study found a total of 900 active hotspots of varying intensity in the US. According to According to the BBC, the trend had already been growing since 2022: a study cited by the British media and carried out by the Economic Policy Institute revealed that between 2021 and 2022 there was an increase of almost 50% in the number of workers involved in large measures of force .
The projection for 2023 indicates that union activity will remain at the same or higher levels. Until August, 44 large mobilizations (involving thousands of employees) were recorded this year and, according to information provided by Bloomberg Law, 323,000 employees participated in measures of force in 2023 (the highest number since 2000, with the exception of of the wave of teacher strikes between 2018 and 2019).
In addition to the wage arrears left by the pandemic, the United States is facing an inflationary crisis that reached 9% in 2022 -the highest in decades- and which in June 2023 dropped to 3% per year. Higher wages managed to outpace the price increase and the hourly average is $33.58 per hour, an annual increase of 4.4%.
Americans, in favor of unionization
According to a report by the public opinion and analysis company Gallup, in 2022 71% of Americans approved of unions, a number not seen since 1965. The support of American citizens for unionization has grown steadily since the so-called Great Recession (or 2008 economic crisis) and had a jump during the covid-19 pandemic. The Washington Post conducted a poll among its non-union workers and half were in favor of forming a union.
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