Unions are shifting their strategy on strikes, increasingly opting for walkouts of one or two days instead of striking indefinitely, as they angle to get the desired attention and new contracts with less risk.
Whether the strike hits a Starbucks or a nursing home, workers are more often choosing stoppages that end when they willingly return to their jobs a day later.
Of the 302 strikes in the U.S. so far this year, 141, or 47%, have lasted a day or less, according to the labor-action tracker at Cornell University’s Industrial Labor Relations School. Only 41 strikes, or 13%, have lasted 30 days or more.
Through the same period in 2021, workers held 53 strikes of a day or less out of a total of 172 walkouts, or 31%.
Short-term walkouts limit the risk that employers will hire permanent replacements for aggrieved workers, said Catherine Creighton, director of Cornell’s ILR Buffalo Co-Lab.
“It’s definitely a risk that employees face when they go on a long-term strike,” said Ms. Creighton, who has worked as a labor relations lawyer. “It’s been found that in a short-term strike, you’re getting your message out to the employer or you’re letting them know you mean business. But you’re not necessarily putting your job at risk.”
She said a brief work stoppage “inflicts more pain on the employer without putting so much risk on the employee.”
Big labor organizations such as the AFL-CIO are cheering the higher rate of strikes this year and have approved of references this month as “Striketober.”
Among the recent labor victories cited by the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation, was a three-day strike by Unite Here Local 2, a 1,000-member union of restaurant workers at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) that secured an agreement for $5-per-hour pay raises that will boost most workers’ hourly wages nearly 30%, from $17.05 to $22.05.
The unionized workers also negotiated free platinum-tier family health insurance, which includes medical, dental and vision coverage, with no premiums and copays of less than $30. The deal calls for a bonus of $1,500 and increased retirement income through a defined-benefit pension.
Some members of the all-Democratic San Francisco Board of Supervisors joined workers on the picket line and pressured the restaurant group and airport management to reach an agreement with the union. Airport management’s agreement to allow menu prices to increase likely contributed to the deal.
“This victory is more than I ever dreamed of,” April Asfour, a cook at Boudin SF, said in a statement released by the union local. “I have six kids, and this raise will help me to support them. And with the health care that we won, I can cover all of them for free. I’m so proud that we stood up for ourselves because everything we won will help me give my family a better life.”
State unemployment benefits vary. New York and some other states provide benefits after one week of a walkout, and others offer no unemployment insurance for strikers.
Ms. Creighton said the national labor shortage during the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an “awakening” among workers, especially young people.
“Workers just seem to be fed up and more likely to take some action to unionize or to act collectively to change their terms and conditions of employment,” she said. “That and the labor shortage gives employees more power than they’ve had in a long time.”
In the health care field, federal law requires workers to give management 10 days’ notice of a strike to make accommodations for patient care.
Members of Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union in western New York state voted overwhelmingly in July to go on one-day strikes at 12 nursing homes in the Buffalo area as part of a push for new labor agreements. Workers reached settlements at three of the facilities just before the strikes began and walked out at the other nine locations, The Buffalo News reported.
George Gresham, president of Local 1199, points to the National Labor Relations Board for upholding recent union gains. President Biden appointed a majority of board members, he said, and the Nov. 8 midterm elections for Congress will help determine whether union organizing continues its momentum.
“The ballot provides a stark choice between pro-union candidates — and those who want to give billions more to wealthy corporations,” Mr. Gresham wrote in a blog post. “Next month’s elections will not only help decide the future of our very democracy, of our right to control our lives and our bodies, of whether we are part of humanity’s fight to save the planet from climate change. The elections will also help determine whether the current wave of workers’ organization is accelerated or stopped in its tracks.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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