The strike that began nearly a month ago between GM and the United Auto Workers appears to be coming to a close. Although the agreement has not officially been passed, both sides have commented that there is a tentative agreement going to the National Council, which is comprised of members from both groups. Should they decide to approve of the agreement, then the 50,000 striking workers will return to work.
Some of the things that the strikers are demanding are higher wages and more benefits. Although that sounds like a fair request, as we saw when we studied unemployment, the higher wages may actually lead to higher levels of unemployment, since GM will be willing to hire fewer workers at those wages. This will probably lead to more unrest amongst the workers that could get laid off because of these agreements.
For the United States economy as a whole, ending the strike will be beneficial, since the output of the country has fallen slightly over the last month due in part to this strike. It will be interesting to see what the terms of the agreement are once they are publicly released.
https://www.npr.org/2019/10/16/770641235/gm-and-uaw-reach-tentative-agreement-to-end-national-strike
When i first saw a report on this i was a little confused because of the agreement. Unions are formed to benefit the workers but in this case it would only be benefiting some workers at the expense of the ones who get laid off. I wonder if the union would consider this a win considering thousands will lose their jobs.
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