Strike!
Reality checking the labor movement.
Strike! Union actions are everywhere. High profile work stoppages from the Screen Actors Guild to the United Auto Workers have put the labor movement front and center in ways we haven’t seen for decades. How powerful is the impact of these actions? You’re not going to like my take on it. But we need to have some authentic dialogue about the labor movement, the corporate class and new strategies required to stem the tide of increasing inequality.
Show Notes
Clips
Episode Timestamp + Link | Clip Link
- 00:00:02 | CBS News: UAW strike puts spotlight on CEO-worker pay gap
- 00:00:16 | CNBC Television: Hollywood studios, writers near agreement to end strike, hope to finalize deal Thursday: Sources
- 00:00:33 | CNBC Television: 'We're not all Tom Cruise', says actor Danny Trejo on actors demanding better pay
- 00:00:47 | MSNBC: ‘The workers are going to win here’: What could change after the UAW strike
- 00:08:13 | CBS Mornings: GM CEO Mary Barra defends position amid UAW strike, says company put 4 offers on the table
- 00:11:17 | Scary Movie: But Wait... There's More!
- 00:18:28 | Big Daddy: Horseshit
Resources
- Associated Press: United Auto Workers threaten to expand targeted strike if there is no substantive progress by Friday
- Automotive News: GM CEO Mary Barra's 2022 compensation: $29M
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Annual work stoppages involving 1,000 or more workers, 1947 - Present
- St. Louis Fed: Civilian Labor Force Level
- Detroit Free Press: GM to reinstate a dividend and start stock buybacks, signaling confidence
- GM Authority: GM Employees Receive Record $12,750 Profit-Sharing Check
- Social Security Administration: National Average Wage Index
- Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung: The French Labour Paradox
- AFL-CIO: Collective Bargaining
- NBER: Impacts of Right-to-Work Laws on Unionization and Wages
- OECD: United States: Main indicators and characteristics of collective bargaining
- Forbes: Remote Work Statistics And Trends In 2023
- MckInsey & Company: Freelance, side hustles, and gigs: Many more Americans have become independent workers
- CNBC: 61% of Americans say they are living paycheck to paycheck even as inflation cools
- NLRB: Board Issues Decision Announcing New Framework for Union Representation Proceedings
- Democracy at Work
- Mondragon
- The New Yorker: How Mondragon Became the World’s Largest Co-Op
- Economic Policy Institute: CEO pay has skyrocketed 1,460% since 1978: CEOs were paid 399 times as much as a typical worker in 2021
- Aspen Institute: Building and Sustaining Worker Cooperatives in the US
- Worker Participation: Countries
- UNDP: How Do Labor Unions Affect Inequality And Efficiency In Latin America And The Caribbean?
UNFTR Episode Resources
- Understanding Socialism: Part One.
- Labor Unions: From Pullman To Kellogg’s. Labor’s Long, Hard Road
- The Clinton Years (Parts I, II, And III)
- Corporate (Ir)Responsibility: Part One.
Book Love
- Nelson Lichtenstein: State of the Union: A Century of American Labor
Image Sources
- “WGA Strike 6.21.2023 065” by ufcw770 is licensed under CC BY 2.0. Changes were made.
UNFTR Quick Links