THE AMERICAN LABOR MOVEMENT IS HAVING a moment. Wage earners across the country in a variety of jobs, from delivery drivers and health care providers to Hollywood scriptwriters and auto plant workers, have formed new unions, threatened labor stoppages or gone on strike this year, bringing entire sectors of the economy to a standstill. President Joe Biden made history this fall as the first sitting U.S. president to join striking workers on a picket line.
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain summarized labor's new ethos in a recent speech, proclaiming what it claimed as a victory in contract negotiations with Stellantis, one of Detroit's big three automakers. "We didn't do it by begging the company, or agreeing to work terrible hours," Fain told supporters. "We didn't do it by giving back. We did it by fighting back."
Biden has given organized labor a lot to fight for. The three core pieces of domestic legislation that make up his "Bidenomics" agenda-the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, CHIPS Act and Inflation Reduction Act-will inject $2 trillion in new eral spending into the economy on infrastructure, clean energy and manufacturing over the next decade, according to a McKinsey & Company report. Much of the funding requires companies to work with unions, giving labor the biggest lifeline it's gotten in decades and a seat at the table to push for better work conditions in the rapidly evolving, 21st-century economy.
"We're at an inflection point because our economy is undergoing a big change," Joseph McCartin, a labor historian at Georgetown University, told Newsweek. "The labor revival now is all about workers wanting to have a say in what future work will look like."
Denne historien er fra December 22, 2023-utgaven av Newsweek Europe.
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Denne historien er fra December 22, 2023-utgaven av Newsweek Europe.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Falling for Romance
A new book, Nora Ephron at the Movies, celebrates the writer/director best known for her iconic rom-coms and strong female characters
Cracking the Norse Code
Walrus DNA has shown that Vikings were likely the first to have encountered Indigenous North Americans
Monumental Shift
The discovery of 165-million-year-old crystals Easter Island has upended the longheld notion of how the Earth's \"conveyor belt\" moves
'OUR FOREIGN POLICY AND DOMESTIC REFORMS ARE TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN'
It is a well-known fact across the globe that the North Korean regime is irrational and unpredictable, but we have been consistent in strengthening our defense posture against the threat from North Korea since the Korean War, and I believe that their conventional capability is much inferior to that of the Korean military.
'They Read My Eulogy As I Lay in an Open Grave'
Like Paris Hilton, Natasia Pelowski claims she was subjected to abuse at a teenage therapy program
Russian Economy Faces 'Burnout'
Vladimir Putin admits difficulties” as the country’s key interest rate reaches a historic high
China's 'Silent Chemical War'
The U.S. must investigate Beijing's role in the manufacturing of fentanyl that is killing Americans, says one mom whose daughter died after accidentally taking the illicit substance
HARSH HEADWINDS
President Yoon Suk Yeol's BATTLE to reform a South Korea beset with structural problems under the specter of an increasingly aggressive neighbor to THE NORTH
Bridget Everett
BRIDGET EVERETT NEVER THOUGHT SHE'D BE THE LEAD OF A TV SHOW. \"I come from the downtown world in New York, a cabaret singer, and these things just don't happen, you don't find yourself with three seasons of HBO.
Amber Ruffin
A LATE-NIGHT COMEDY SHOW ON CNN? YES, and it's a game show, too.
