A Striking Analysis of the State of Labor in the U.S.

In May 2023, one of the longest strikes in Hollywood since the 1960s took place when The Writers Guild of America (WGA) stopped work for a total of 148 days. The strike overlapped with the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) strikes that lasted until November. These resistance efforts caused one of the biggest interruptions in American film and media production since the COVID-19 pandemic and resulted in a loss of 45,000 jobs and an estimated $6.5 billion to the Southern Californian economy. Ultimately, the negotiations made by the WGA Negotiation Committee addressed workers’ grievances around residuals from streaming media and artificial intelligence (AI), winning streaming bonuses, and limitations on AI, among other wage protections for writers. Last year, during what New York Times writer Soumya Karlamagla called ‘Hot Labor Summer,’ the country witnessed some of the highest profile and largest number of strikes in decades. According to Cornell University Labor Action Tracker, 69 strikes involving 214,300 workers took place in just September 2023. The WGA and SAG-AFTRA unions were paralleled  by organized labor movements  in education, the auto industry, and Starbucks ‘partners.’  This general increase in labor action and acts of solidarity between movements suggests a central motivating factor could have been at play. Analysts argue that this could have been caused by inflation, but also by a generational political shift towards progressive politics. 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its annual report on labor data in January. The report states that the union membership rate (UMR) for wage and salary workers changed very little from 2022 and remained at only 10% in 2023. Any reduction in union membership can be attributed to the addition of 2.7 million jobs to the market last year. Since 1983, the first year that data was collected by The Bureau of Labor Statistics, the union membership rate has reduced by half. Forty years ago, it sat at 20.1% and included 17.7 million union workers. The study also shows that the UMR of public-sector workers was more than five times higher than the rate of private-sector workers. Additionally, it demonstrates that the highest unionization rates were in education, training, library, and protective service occupations. 

While 2023 felt like a big year for strikes, it pales in comparison to the numbers of the 20th century. In the 1970s, nearly two million workers in the United States held an average of 5,000 strikes yearly. The large number of strikes is thought to have been caused by a spike in inflation in the late 1960s due to the war in Vietnam. During this time, prices of consumer goods rose by over 5%. Unionization also increased in the public sector during this time, with nurses, teachers, and postal workers coming together to rally for Cost of Living Adjustments (COLAs) in labor contracts. 200,000 postal workers held one of the largest and most successful strikes in U.S. history. Though striking for postal workers was illegal at the time, they continued and eventually founded the American Postal Workers Union (APWU), winning the right to negotiate with the government for a COLA and a wage increase. 

With so many labor-focused actions taking place, it begs the question: why now? The increase in action seems to be a domino effect echoing the same economic origins of the labor struggles in the 1970s. 2021 witnessed the highest inflation rate in the 21st century due to the economic effects of COVID-19: 7%. The rising inflation caused economic hardships for workers everywhere and drove businesses that were losing profit to cut corners with worker protections. The economic effects of COVID-19 have continued to impact citizens for the two years following 2021, showing itself most prevalently in high grocery bills and gas prices. 

While inflation tightens the economy and increases the cost of living for Americans, it is not the sole reason for an increase in organized labor action. Some analysts believe that seeing successful campaigns of large unions gain significant media coverage encourages copycats who strike in solidarity to fight for similar goals. In 2023, some of the leading campaigns were in Hollywood, held by writers and actors, and in the auto industry. These followed in the footsteps of the Starbucks and Amazon unionization efforts of the early 2020s. 

Another possible reason could be an increase in union support across the board. According to a poll conducted by Gallup, 67% of Americans were “approving” of labor unions in 2023. Support for unions is also reflected by President Biden’s union-friendly stance during his presidency. Biden has called himself the most “pro-union” president yet and is pushing the concept of “Bidenomics,” which encourages unionization as an accelerating force to the national economy, in his reelection effort. As the United Auto Workers threatened a strike in August 2023, the Biden administration released a report arguing that labor unions have a positive impact on the broader economy and help combat challenges that middle-class Americans face in the workplace. 

There is not enough research to determine if a generational ideological shift to more progressive, pro-union politics could be responsible for recently increased rates of strikes, but Pew Research found that Generation Z is generally “progressive and pro-government,” much like their predecessors, Millennials. With the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the social activism that accompanied it, and the rise of AI, Gen Z is growing up in unique economic, social, and technological circumstances. These events will impact how Gen Z views labor and their approach to unionization. 

Looking forward to the rest of 2024, the U.S. will most likely continue to see a rise in strikes and possibly increased unionization due to the wins of the WGA and others last year. Sharon Block, a professor at Harvard Law School and executive director of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy, said in a U.S. News Report article that she thinks “The alliance of the public and the labor movement has a potential to influence these dynamics even more in 2024 than we saw in 2023.” Union support will likely continue to be a point in Biden’s reelection campaign as he tries to win union voter support.