IN THE STATES
The Philadelphia Inquirer
By Lizzy McLellan Ravitch
Dec. 28, 2023
As worker organizing activity heated up toward the end of 2022, with new unions and strikes grabbing headlines through the fall, labor leaders predicted 2023 would be an even bigger year for employees seizing on their leverage. That prophecy seems to have come true. A group of training doctors founded the city’s biggest new union in half a century; 9,000 instructors a nearby state university went on strike for the first time in the school’s history; and dozens of other worker groups picketed and launched new union campaigns. Take a look back on a year of local organizing, protesting, negotiating and striking in the Philadelphia region.
JOINING TOGETHER
Why Were There So Many Strikes in 2023?
US News & World Report
By Cecelia Smith-Schoenwalder
Dec. 28, 2023
It was called the “summer of strikes” or “hot strike summer” – only the movement continued into fall and winter, too. More than half a million workers staged nearly 400 strikes during the first 11 months of 2023, according to Cornell University’s Labor Action Tracker. From auto workers to Hollywood actors and writers to airline pilots to UPS, strikes or the threat of strikes proved to be a powerful tool for workers in 2023. But why this year specifically? Many union contracts happened to be up in 2023. But it was more than just that. Workers felt empowered by other highly visible and successful strikes (or threats to strike) and a tight labor market, emboldening them to ask for higher pay and other benefits as inflation claimed more money from their pockets.
United flight attendants picket at Sky Harbor for new contract
Phoenix New Times
By O'Hara Shipe
Dec. 28, 2023
It seemed to be business as usual as a rush of travelers darted through a bustling Terminal 3 at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Dec. 14. They formed long lines behind the various airline ticketing counters. Outside, another long line had emerged. But unlike the ones inside the terminal, this line comprised United Airlines pilots, flight attendants and airport service workers who gathered to picket. They marched holding yellow signs criticizing United management, calling for a new contract and criticizing "corporate greed." “We are here today to reach out to United Airlines management and let them know that we want a contract. Our current contract has been expired for a while, and we've been at the negotiating table for over two years,” said Peter Coenen, a United Airlines flight attendant and union representative with the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA.
LABOR LAWS
‘Broken’ US labor laws could hamper union wins for workers, experts warn
The Guardian
By Steven Greenhouse
Dec. 27, 2023
Labor experts see more wins ahead in 2024 for US unions after a year of attention-grabbing strikes and surging public support but worry gains may be stymied by the US’s “broken” labor laws. Strikes by autoworkers, writers, actors and nurses and a threatened strike by UPS workers all led to significant wins in 2023. “The big challenge for labor in 2024 will be to take that momentum and turn it into new organizing and getting first contracts where workers have organized,” said Ken Jacobs, the co-director of the UC Berkeley Labor Center. “That’s going to be a real challenge because labor law in the US is broken.”