Major worker strikes increased nearly 50% last year as union popularity grew

[ThatRobGuy]

Worker strikes increased nearly 50% last year

These aren't the blue-collar factory strikes of yore.

www.axios.com

By the numbers: These aren't the blue-collar factory strikes of yore. There were 23 major work stoppages last year, involving a total of 120,600 workers, and 98% of the folks work in the service sector, specifically healthcare and education.

• The biggest strike of 2022 was the 40-day walkout of 48,000 graduate students at the University of California, followed by 15,000 nurses who walked out in Minnesota.

Zoom out: Common demands from striking workers included higher pay, followed by health care, health and safety issues and staffing, according to Cornell's database.


While collective bargaining is an important piece of the puzzle when it comes to the negotiation process. As the the article mentions "these aren't the blue-collar factory strikes of yore".

In looking a little deeper into it, the largest strike (per the article) was of 48,000 graduate students at the University of California that was being referenced seems a bit odd to me.

A) I guess I didn't realize that grad students were expecting any sort substantial pay for something that's part of the normal pathway (acting as a TA or teaching entry level classes) to a post-graduate degree. I thought the "end prize" of the advanced degree was the thing that would earn them more money.

B) Sounds like the original pay rate for them was ~$30k for nine months of part-time work. (which pays better than most other side part time jobs a college student may have to get some supplemental income), the rate they negotiated for was to get that bumped up to $34k.

C) The grad students that were striking were being represented by the United Auto Workers, which I also found unusual since that seems to be an unrelated sector. I would have expected some sort of educators-related union to be handling that sort of thing.