Labor’s Tide Is Rising
North American workers are gearing up for pivotal labor actions. With a tight labor market and the tailwind of significant union wins, the coming months promise a royal rumble between labor and capital.
Striking Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) workers march on April 19, 2023, in Kingston, Canada. (Lars Hagberg /AFP via Getty Images)
This year is set to be a royal rumble between labor and capital in North America. By now, the reasons for the showdown are familiar. We saw a similar phenomenon in recent years, particularly in 2023. The pandemic not only increased the immiseration of workers — it also exposed the plight of working people everywhere. As the rich grew richer, everyone else struggled to feed themselves, fill their prescriptions, and indulge in the rare luxury of a night out.
As the pandemic working conditions laid bare the struggles of workers, the strength of the labor market grew. As wages fell behind inflation, effectively giving workers a pay cut, unions seized the moment — and the attending growth in class consciousness — to agitate for better deals for their members. Capital, naturally, resisted. The reasoning is simple: treating workers as human beings deserving of a fair deal might lead to an expectation of such extravagances as fair wages and job security. What audacity.
Labor Action at Scale
The United States saw 470 strikes and lockouts affecting nearly 540,000 workers in 2023. That’s more striking workers than in the previous two years combined, which comes in at 364,000. Writing in the New York Times, David Leonhardt and Noam Scheiber note that “labor’s very good year” benefited from momentum and “key milestones,” including a deal between Microsoft and the Communications Workers of America that eased unionization in the sector.
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