10/12/2023

The Rise in Striking Employees

Workers have become more powerful and gutsy

According to the available statistical measures, strike activity has radically increased in 2023. The question is, why? Many commentators—including me—have focused on workers and their rising organizing activity, activism, and militancy. I have said that workers are angry at their employers because of the pandemic and bloated profits.

However, workers are only half of the equation. It takes two to make a strike. The other half of the reason for America's historic strike wave is employers’ failure to comprehend that times have changed and the model they developed and exploited during an earlier time is no longer relevant in 2023.

Let's begin with the numbers. Unions represented only 10.1 percent of the U.S. workforce in 2022—likely the lowest union density rate since before Congress enacted the National Labor Relations Act in 1935. Yet strike activity in 2023 has reached a level we have not seen since the turn of the century when union density was higher.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Fast Company.