BY

Julia Conley,

Common Dreams

PUBLISHED

October 15, 2021

Labor advocates are calling the nationwide show of union power and worker solidarity “Striketober,” as work stoppages across numerous industries are expected in the coming hours and days if unions’ demands aren’t met.

About 10,000 workers at farm equipment manufacturer John Deere are walked out Thursday after the company failed to negotiate a contract that satisfies the demands of the United Auto Workers (UAW) members by 11:59 pm on Wednesday.

With 90% of members voting on Sunday, 90% voted down a tentative agreement over pension plan changes and what they viewed as inadequate pay raises — boosting compensation by 5 to 6% — considering the company’s skyrocketing profits this year, with a net income between $5.7 and 5.9 billion.

“We aren’t asking to be millionaires, we are asking for fair wages, a pension, and post-retirement healthcare,” one employee told WQAD, an ABC affiliate in Moline, Illinois. “After 30 years or more of giving your body to a company moving 1,000 pound castings around or assembling tractors, it rips your body apart. It’s not unreasonable to not want to have that worry in life of ‘what if?'”

More than 24,000 nurses and other healthcare workers in California and Oregon also voted on Monday to authorize a strike after contract negotiations with their employer, Kaiser Permanente, stalled. The workers are demanding relief from pandemic-related burnout, 4% annual raises, and increased hiring.

After voting to authorize a strike earlier this month, 60,000 film and TV crew workers could go on strike on Monday if the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents hundreds of production companies, fails to offer a contract that allows employees sufficient time off.

Workers frequently work 12-hour days — often without meal breaks — and get only 10 hours off in between workdays, while the lowest-paid crew members earn less than a living wage, according to the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE).

“Striketober is a function of greedy bosses trying to recoup the un-recoupable,” tweeted Jonas Loeb, communications director for IATSE.

Years ago, when I was secretary of labor, I kept meeting working people all over the country who had full-time work but complained that their jobs paid too little and had few benefits, or were unsafe, or required lengthy or unpredictable hours. Many said their employers treated them badly, harassed them, and did not respect them.

Since then, these complaints have only grown louder, according to polls. For many, the pandemic was the last straw. Workers are fed up, wiped out, done-in, and run down. In the wake of so much hardship, illness and death during the past year, they’re not going to take it anymore.

“Corporate America wants to frame this as a ‘labor shortage,'” wrote Reich. “Wrong. What’s really going on is more accurately described as a living-wage shortage, a hazard pay shortage, a childcare shortage, a paid sick leave shortage, and a healthcare shortage. Unless these shortages are rectified, many Americans won’t return to work anytime soon.”

As IATSE members’ potential strike drew near, the union pointed out that some of its members — stagehands and theater tech workers at North Shore Music Theater (NSMT) in Beverly, Massachusetts — secured livable wages after striking for just one day this month.