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Last year's successful strikes may prompt more labor actions in 2024

Jan 15, 2024
Workers were watching as strikers won concessions from Hollywood studios and Detroit automakers.
Washington Post employees walk a picket line during their 24-hour strike in December of last year.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Will labor unions maintain their momentum in 2024?

Dec 28, 2023
Unions are more visible and vocal than they've been in decades. If the labor market remains tight, they'll have negotiating leverage.
A United Auto Workers union hall in Chicago. The UAW's coordinated work stoppages made headlines and produced results in 2023.
Scott Olson/Getty Images

For some striking workers, small can be mighty

Sep 14, 2023
The United Auto Workers may focus its actions on specific plants, instead of organizing a broad work stoppage, if contract negotiations fail.
Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images

United Auto Workers strike would hit the Upper Midwest hard

Sep 11, 2023
Contracts with Ford, GM and Stellantis all end at the end of Thursday, and the president of the United Auto Workers union has made clear that members are prepared to strike.
Some United Auto Workers members in Detroit gathered after the city's Labor Day parade in early September.
Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

How Labor Day has changed — and not changed — in its 140-year history

Sep 4, 2023
The first Labor Day parade took place in 1882. Historian Allyson Brantley says there are notable parallels between that moment and today.
A member of the sheet metal workers union walks in a 2022 Labor Day parade in Wilmington, California. Parades have been a mainstay of Labor Day celebrations since the 1880s.
Mario Tama/Getty Images

UPS reaches contract with 340,000 unionized workers, averting potentially calamitous strike

Jul 25, 2023
The Teamsters called the tentative agreement “historic” and “overwhelmingly lucrative.” It includes, among other benefits, higher wages and air conditioning in delivery trucks.
Above, UPS workers at a Teamsters rally on July 19. A deal reached Tuesday by Teamsters and UPS was key to averting a nationwide strike.
Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

What happens if UPS workers go on strike?

Jul 10, 2023
The last time UPS workers went on strike was 1997. It lasted 15 days, and cost $850 million. 
UPS and its workers union just ended another round of negotiations with no deal, and their contract expires July 31.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

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Writers strike means this costume coordinator's job has to wrap, for now

May 25, 2023
"It is eerily similar to a regular production wrap," says Kenya Morgan. "Only, as I coined it last week, this is the rehearsal wrap."
Kenya Morgan worked as a costume coordinator on "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever."
Christian Thompson/Disneyland Resort via Getty Images

Deadline looms for potentially "perilous" nationwide rail strike

Nov 28, 2022
The effects of a work stoppage could be felt as soon as Dec. 5. Many in the private sector are looking to Congress for a solution.
A rail strike could affect energy, wastewater treatment and much more. "Rail companies have been pushed to get those better profit margins, better performance on Wall Street, and .... are trying to use as little equipment and staff as possible," says Rachel Premack of FreightWaves.
Mario Tama/Getty Images

Why University of California's graduate workers are striking

Nov 16, 2022
Some 48,000 teaching assistants, tutors and researchers in the U of C system want higher pay and benefits that offset California's high cost of living. How did things get this way?
Mario Tama/Getty Images