Striketober: American workers take to the picket lines

[EvMetro]

https://econ.st/3ndRka6

THE PANDEMIC has been very good for cornflakes, and very busy for those who make them. With so many people spending so much time at home, cereal consumption has boomed. Kerry Williams, an instrument technician, says this has translated into almost constant overtime shifts at his Kellogg’s plant in Pennsylvania, sometimes as long as 16 hours a day. That would be hard enough. But what makes it that much harder, he says, is seeing Kellogg’s, one of the world’s biggest producers of ready-to-eat cereals, pull in giant profits even as his pay has barely increased. “We feel it’s time that this money trickles down to us because without the workers on the floor there would be no Kellogg,” he says. Mr Williams and about 1,400 colleagues at Kellogg’s factories around the country, from Tennessee to Michigan, have been on strike for two weeks.

They are far from alone. On October 14th about 10,000 employees of John Deere, a manufacturer of agricultural machinery, walked off the job in five states. More than 20,000 nurses and workers in California and Oregon with Kaiser Permanente, a health-care company, have voted to strike. Some 60,000 behind-the-scenes film and television workers were also set to head to picket lines, having voted 99% in favour of a strike, but a last-minute deal on October 16th averted that. Headline writers are referring to the wave of industrial action as “Striketober”


This article gives a good look at what is going on in America with the labor market.

I would ask that people read the article before the knee jerk "Biden sucks" post and realize this is a continuation of what we saw happening in 2018 and 19.

Biden sucks

 

[Harpy Eagle]

It is interesting so far that not a single person in this thread has taken the side of the worker. Is everyone here a business owner or something?

 

[Oldestyle]

I suspect they do know these things. They are taking advantage of the current situation. Now is not really the time to be moving production off shore....long line to get shit unloaded.

My first job out of college was teaching history in Easthampton, Ma.. It was a "mill town" where all of the mills had closed down. The people there had been led to believe by union leaders that if they struck they could get more money from the textile companies. They did and the textile companies crunched the numbers and figured out it made sense to move operations to the Carolinas. Those union mill workers in Ma. took advantage of the situation...got more pay from their employer but in the long run their actions absolutely devastated that community when all of the jobs left. I'm just pointing out the hard realities involved here.

 

[EvMetro]

It is interesting so far that not a single person in this thread has taken the side of the worker. Is everyone here a business owner or something?

Those workers are lucky. Overtime pays time and a half, so they are making a lot more than they normally would. It's nice seeing the profits trickle down to the workers like this. Overtime pay rocks!

 

[Mr Natural]

It is interesting so far that not a single person in this thread has taken the side of the worker. Is everyone here a business owner or something?

Republicans hate workers.

 

[Dekster]

It is interesting so far that not a single person in this thread has taken the side of the worker. Is everyone here a business owner or something?

I am indifferent to them. I recognize the reality of the current business climate. It does not favor unions. Part of that is because democratic party initiatives have rendered many of them superfluous--mandatory health care was a labor wedge; higher wages a labor wedge; worker safety, a labor wedge.

 

[Bootney Lee Farnsworth]

Which is easy when there are 1000 people waiting to take their job. Not so much when that line is empty

So, I assume you are on board with border control and stopping the job market saturation of unskilled illegal workers?

 

[Harpy Eagle]

So, I assume you are on board with border control and stopping the job market saturation of unskilled illegal workers?

I am, and at the same time punishing those that hire them severely enough to stop others from doing it.

 

[Manonthestreet]

Has nothing to do with 18 or 19. Shutdown and paying people to sit on their ass put you behind the demand curve. Where are all those who lost their jobs......can't find em.....plus bet youve had above avg retirements

 

[jbrownson0831]

Republicans hate workers.

Dims hate to work.