Workplace strikes surge in the country

School bus drivers, factory workers, and nurses are among the many hundreds who walked off their jobs amid a surge of labor activism that experts have named "Striketober". Experts say that these strikes are arising from the new leverage workers hold in the nation’s tight job market. Having seen the profits companies have collected during the pandemic, workers want to see their efforts acknowledged in the form of better pay, benefits, and working conditions. While the current strikes and work stoppages could result in near-term inflation and production delays, experts say that this could fundamentally change the economic standing of millions of workers in the country. 

The reasons for the majority of strikes vary but ultimately it comes down to how the pandemic has changed the workers' perspective on themselves, their employers, and their jobs. This is especially the case for workers who had a higher risk of exposing themselves to the virus by going to work. In such a stage, when millions of workers have quit their jobs, the remaining have staged walkouts and strikes. Kim Cordova, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers with 23,000 members said, "People don’t want to go and die at work. I mean, they’re not compensated enough." Recent strikes that have taken the headlines in the country include walkouts by John Deere employees, Kaiser Permanente nurses and health workers, and 1,400 Kellogg workers in Pennsylvania. 

Source: The Washington Post