2023: The Year of the Strike

January 18, 2024

By the end of 2023, there were over 400 strikes launched. Over one million workers found themselves at the negotiating table. In a staggeringly high number of places, the workers prevailed.

The union made them strong.

I’m not going to go through a list-that would take far more room than Substack allows-but I do want to point out a few that really reset the discussion in mainstream America and forced Corporate America to cave. While it may be slightly premature to say that unions are “back”, there is no doubt that organized labor is far from dead.

This should give hope to all workers.

The strike is the weapon of last resort. The workers only go on strike once all options have been exhausted and once a strike is authorized by the membership. The UPS concessions to its Teamsters-covered workers were averted at the 11th hour, so no strike was necessary. Even the airline pilots came very close to walking off the job in the middle of summer.

The United Auto Workers, Writers’ Guild, and Screen Actors’ Guild also went on strike, each winning major concessions. In the case of the SAG, the corporate bosses capitulated on every single point. We can only hope that the strength and solidarity that we are seeing now in these labor deals continue to grow and fan out into the American workforce as a whole.

Unions have been under fire since the Carter Administration. Neoliberal and corporate-owned Democrats have aided and abetted Republicans and refused to bolster union protections, engage in labor law reforms, or otherwise implement policies that would protect the average American worker. Even the “most labor-friendly president since FDR” broke a railway workers' strike early in his presidency. How much more powerful would it have been to see the President of the United States carrying a sign on the picket line with the workers?

Success breeds success. Victory leads to hope. Hope leads to action. Action leads to a better tomorrow.

2024, 2025, and every year for the next several years will be critical to not just the cause of labor, but the cause of democracy. The aims of organized labor and democracy are intertwined and interwoven, summed up best by FDR: freedom of speech and worship, freedom from want and from fear.

I originally was going to write this article as a dissertation of the big union wins, but a dry, over-analyzing piece isn’t the message that I think we need right now. I think we all need a reminder of what unions and unionized workers have historically done for this country and their role today. While we may not be able to list off the litany of laws or pages of procedures they fought for, we feel it and know it-which is why support for organized labor continues to surge to near all-time highs and independent organizing efforts like Starbucks United and Amazon United are popping up.

We stand in one of those moments of history where the power to make our own destiny is more evident than ever. We know that 2024 is going to be a major political year, but be sure that the midst of the mudslinging that you support striking workers. Unions have held the line for the American worker for decades. Now, when they seek to claim what has been promised to them, we do not break faith. Do not cross picket lines. Show solidarity.

The union makes US strong.

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