2023 Sees a Surge in Strikes. But Are They At An All-Time High?

The most well liked place for coworkers to congregate recently is on the picket line.

From nurses to Hollywood actors to autoworkers, business professionals are stepping out on their jobs to advocate for increased pay and advantages. Thus far in 2023, over 353,000 employees have gone on strike, probably the most in practically twenty years, in line with Bloomberg Law data.

The widespread strikes have resulted in 4.1 million missed days of labor to this point in 2023, in line with knowledge from The Labor Division, per The Wall Street Journal.

The final time work stoppages occurred at an analogous scale to right this moment’s numbers was in 1997 when roughly 180,000 UPS employees went on strike. This 12 months, the usteamsters embarked on a strike in June that concluded in a brand new contract settlement in August.

The biggest variety of work stoppages to this point this 12 months are by Hollywood actors, which account for about 160,000 of present work stoppages, in line with the information.

^{Actors (L-R) Patrick Fabian, Rhea Seehorn, Norma Maldonado, Aaron Paul, author Peter Gould, Betsy Brandt, Matt Jones, Charles Baker, Jesse Plemons and Bryan Cranston be part of members of the Display Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) and WGA on the picket line in entrance of Sony Studios in Culver Metropolis, California, on August 29, 2023. Chris Delmas/AFP | Getty Photographs}

Final week, United Auto Employees (UAW) members went on strike advocating for increased wages, making their strike the second largest work stoppage in current historical past—UAW encompasses practically 150,000 employees from Common Motors, Ford, and Stellantis.

The strike, which started on September 15, calls for a right away pay elevate of 20% and subsequent 5% will increase over 4 years. Negotiations are nonetheless ongoing because the strike has entered its fourth day.

Nevertheless, regardless of the rising variety of strikes, there are nonetheless 70% fewer strikes now within the U.S. in comparison with the early Nineteen Seventies, in line with the Financial Coverage Institute.

Union membership has declined through the years as a result of numerous elements, together with “proper to work” legal guidelines (state-level laws that prohibit employers and labor unions from requiring employees to affix a union or pay union dues or charges as a situation of employment), in addition to some corporations being brazenly against employee unions.

Nonetheless, approval of labor unions is at its highest stage in virtually 60 years, in line with Gallup. In 2022, Gallup discovered that 71% of People approve of labor unions, the best quantity since 1965.