Dock strikes usher in a new era of American labor activism

The U.S. longshoremen who went on strike early Tuesday are just the latest unionized group to back their demands for better contracts with layoffs, demonstrating their value to both the national economy and their employers’ bottom lines.

Unions representing auto workers, actors, hotel housekeepers and aircraft assembly workers all called for strikes as organized labor made its voice heard last year. Members argued they have made the sacrifices their companies have asked of them during the pandemic and difficult economic periods and now is the time to catch up, especially after several years of elevated inflation.

According to Cornell University’s ILR School, the number of work stoppages rose 9% between 2022 and 2023 to 466 strikes and four lockouts. However, the number of workers involved in work stoppages was more than double the previous year, at about 539,000, according to the school’s research.

A database maintained by Cornell and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s School of Labor and Employment Relations recorded 250 strikes and other industrial actions in 2024 as of Monday.

Here’s a look at some current power struggles between companies and unions

U.S. ports and the International Longshoremen’s Association

Longshoremen at 36 ports from Maine to Texas went on strike early Tuesday, their first strike in decades, over wages and automation despite reports of progress in collective bargaining. The contract between the ports and about 45,000 members of the International Longshoremen’s Association expired at midnight.

Allianz said it had increased its offer to 50% over six years and promised to maintain automation limits from the old contract. Allianz also said its offer tripled employer retirement contributions and strengthened health care options. In a statement early Tuesday, the union said it rejected the alliance’s latest proposal because it “falls far short of the demands of rank-and-file ILA members on wages and protections from automation.” The two sides had not held formal negotiations since June.

Workers at the Port of Philadelphia walked in circles outside the port, chanting, “No work without a fair contract.” The union, striking for the first time since 1977, had noticeboards on the side of a truck that read: “Automation is hurting families: ILA stands for workplace protection.”

If the strike is prolonged, companies will be forced to pay shippers for delays, causing some peak holiday shopping season goods to arrive late – potentially impacting deliveries of everything from toys and toys artificial Christmas trees to cars, coffee and fruit.

Boeing and the International Association of Machinists

On September 12, aircraft assembly workers at Boeing factories near Seattle and elsewhere resigned after union members voted overwhelmingly to reject a proposed collective bargaining agreement and go on strike. Boeing and negotiators from the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, along with federal mediators, held three negotiating sessions. The company presented a revised contract last week, but the union refused to put it up for a vote after polling its members who said it had failed to meet their wage and pension demands.

Video games and SAG-AFTRA

Earlier this month, video game casts reached agreements with 80 individual games that signed tentative or staggered budget agreements with the cast union and accepted the artificial intelligence provisions they requested.

The artists had been on strike for over a month.

Members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists began striking in July after negotiations with gaming industry giants over AI protections that began more than a year and a half ago stalled.

The tentative agreement secures wage improvements, protection against “exploitative use” of artificial intelligence and safeguards that take into account the burden of physical performance and vocal stress. The staggered budget agreement aims to make it easier for independent game developers or projects with smaller budgets to work with union talent while providing artists with the protections of the interim agreement.

Las Vegas Resorts and Culinary Workers Union

Last month, thousands of Las Vegas Strip hospitality union members reached a tentative agreement with the Venetian and Palazzo resorts, a first for employees of the sprawling, Italian-inspired complex that opened 25 years ago.

The Culinary Workers Union announced on social platform X that the deal was reached after a year of negotiations. It includes over 4,000 hotel and casino employees, from housekeepers and cocktail waiters to bartenders and porters.

Bethany Khan, a union spokeswoman, said the deal reflected major successes achieved in recent contracts awarded to 40,000 hotel workers at 18 Strip hotels owned by casino giants MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment and Wynn Resorts owned or operated by them.

These achievements included a 32% salary increase over five years, a reduction in household workload and improved job security due to advances in technology and artificial intelligence.

According to the union, the wage increase under these contracts will be an average hourly wage of $35 by the end of the contracts. Workers at those plants earned about $26 an hour with benefits before receiving their final contracts in November.

Hotel chains and unite here

More than 10,000 workers at 25 hotels across the U.S. staged a Labor Day strike over the weekend to amplify their demands for higher wages, fairer workloads and the reversal of COVID-era cuts. The majority of striking housekeepers and other hospitality workers, represented by the UNITE HERE union, remained unemployed for several days. On September 24, about 2,000 unionized workers at Hawaii’s largest resort, the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort, joined several thousand more hotel workers who continue to work at Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott hotels in Honolulu, San Diego and San Francisco the union went on strike.

Kaiser Permanente and healthcare workers

Unions representing 85,000 health care workers reached a tentative agreement with industry giant Kaiser Permanente in October 2023 following a strike over wages and staffing.

The agreement included setting a minimum hourly wage of $25 in California, where most Kaiser facilities are located, and $23 in other states. Workers would also see a 21% wage increase over four years.

Ahead of the agreement, there was a three-day strike by 75,000 workers in several states.

The agreement also included safeguards for subcontracting and outsourcing, as well as initiatives to invest in the current workforce and address a workforce crisis.

Automakers and UAW

Late last year, the United Auto Workers union overwhelmingly ratified new contracts with Ford and Stellantis, as well as a similar deal with General Motors that would raise wages across the industry and force automakers to absorb higher costs.

The agreements, which run until April 2028, ended contentious talks that began in the summer of 2022 and led to six weeks of strikes at all three automakers.

The new contract agreements were widely seen as a victory for the UAW, although Ford’s top executive said the company would reconsider where it would build cars in the future. The companies agreed to dramatically increase wages for top workers at assembly plants, with increases and cost-of-living adjustments that would result in wage increases of 33%.

Top workers at assembly plants should immediately get an 11% raise and earn about $42 an hour when contracts expire in April 2028.

As part of the agreements, the automakers also ended many of the different wage levels at which they had paid different workers. They also agreed in principle to include new electric vehicle battery factories in the national union contract.

UPS and Teamsters

UPS workers who are members of the Teamsters union agreed to a tentative contract with the package delivery company last year before heading to the picket lines as promised. But the lead-up to approval hasn’t been smooth as contentious collective bargaining threatened to disrupt package delivery for millions of businesses and households across the country.

After negotiations failed in early July 2023, the Atlanta company agreed to a tentative contract agreement with the Teamsters just days before the August 1 deadline.

At the time of signing, full- and part-time union employees were scheduled to receive $2.75 more per hour in 2023 and a total of $7.50 more by the end of the five-year contract. The starting hourly wage for part-time workers was also increased to $21, but some workers said this fell short of their expectations.

UPS said at the time that the average full-time UPS driver would earn about $170,000 a year in salary and benefits through the end of the new contract. It was not clear how much of that figure came from benefits.

As part of the agreement, the delivery company also agreed, among other things, to make Martin Luther King Jr. Day a full holiday, eliminate forced overtime on drivers’ days off and to use cameras aimed at the driver are to avoid taking taxis. A two-tier pay system for drivers was abolished and provisional agreements were also made on safety issues, including equipping more trucks with air conditioning.

Hollywood Studios and SAG-AFTRA

Hollywood actors voted in December 2023 to ratify an agreement with studios that ended their strike after nearly four months, marking an official end to a labor dispute that rocked the entertainment industry for most of last year.

Members of the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists – agreed to a three-year contract.

Control over the use of artificial intelligence was the most hotly contested issue in the long, methodical negotiations. The contract provided for a general salary increase of 7%, with further increases occurring in the second and third years of the contract term.

The agreement also contained a hard-fought provision that temporarily derailed the talks: the creation of a fund to reimburse artists for future performances of their works on streaming services, in addition to the traditional residual amounts paid for screening films or series to pay.