Sunday, October 20, 2019
In a Strong Economy, Why Are So Many Workers on Strike?
Despite one of the longest bull economies in US history workers across the US are striking. While most industries have been experiencing significant growth, workers' wages have not been keeping up. By 2010 corporate profits had already recovered from 2008 but on average it took 6 years for household wages to recover. Many workers feel as though they have missed out on the gains of the recovery and after. Their frustration stems from the rising gaps become corporate income and that of the worker and strikes are at a high since the 80s. Just last year over 500,000 workers participated in strikes.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/19/business/economy/workers-strike-economy.html
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I think that this is very interesting as well, I wonder if there is a common trend on the industry these workers are coming from. There even could be a trend between the types of jobs that these are. A lot of these strikes could be against the low minimum wage as well.
ReplyDeleteI recently saw McDonald's workers on strike on social media. Whenever workers go on strike it is in order to fight for things. Strikes are often a platform for discussing broader issues in order for their employers to compromise with them. The McDonald's employees were fighting for higher wages, which they do not deserve since it is an unskilled job.
ReplyDeleteThe unemployment rate is at 3.5% as of September 2019 which is the lowest it has been in 30 years. While the percentage of people who have jobs is higher, some of these jobs could be low-skill/part-time jobs where the wages are relatively low. The strikes you mentioned are workers unionizing to hopefully get better working wages. This unionization can lead to higher wages, but also less total employment due to the higher price of a worker, creating more structural unemployment.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kofi that their is a cycle involving strikes and the possible structural unemployment, as it is seen in the case with GM. Despite these jobs being typically unskilled jobs I feel like employers can sometimes take advantage of the employees and low ball their wages. Its important to have a realistic wage that could be enough to support workers regardless if their job is unskilled or not.
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