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The labor movement in the United States is having an unusually active moment, with as many as four high-profile strikes possible and a level of coordination among separate unions that experts say has been lacking in recent years. 

In May, the Writers Guild of America, which represents film and television screenwriters, went on strike, followed last week by the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA). The combination of the two has brought production of film and television programs in the U.S. to a near-complete halt. 

While labor action in Hollywood has garnered plenty of headlines, its day-to-day impact on average Americans has been limited. That will not be the case if two other major unions, both in contract negotiations right now, wind up on the picket lines. 

The United Auto Workers union (UAW) is negotiating with automakers General Motors, Ford and Stellantis — the so-called Big Three — to try to avert a strike that could result in hundreds of thousands of autoworkers walking off the job. At the same time, the Teamsters union is in discussions with shipping giant United Parcel Service over its contract with delivery drivers. A strike by either or both would be deeply felt across the U.S. 

Changing atmosphere 

The labor movement in the United States has been in a period of protracted decline for several decades. In the mid-20th century, fully one-third of U.S. workers belonged to unions, and it was not uncommon in any given year to see thousands of strikes, with workers in the millions across multiple industries walking off the job for some period of time. 

In 1974, at the peak of labor job actions, the federal government counted 6,074 individual strikes across the country, according to data gathered by Judith Stepan-Norris and Jasmine Kerrissey for their recent book, Union Booms and Busts: The Ongoing Fight Over the U.S. Labor Movement. 

That began to decline in the 1980s, as legal protections for employers became stronger and the courts became less friendly to labor. Strikes increasingly ended with little or no benefits for the workers involved, while many lost a major source of income for the duration of their work stoppages. Union membership fell, and by 2014, the U.S. saw only 68 strikes in total. Today, union members make up only about 6% of working Americans.

Possible turnaround 

Stepan-Norris, an emerita professor of sociology at the University of California-Irvine, told VOA there are multiple factors that appear to be animating the movement in 2023. She said the coronavirus pandemic and a trend of people leaving the workforce, called by many the “Great Resignation,” changed the dynamic significantly.  

“That gave workers more power. You had more of a strong labor market with low unemployment,” Stepan-Norris said.  

In addition, she said, they have had the example of some recent successful strikes. Last year, for example, academic workers led a massive strike against the University of California system, which resulted in major concessions in workers’ favor.  

“Other workers are looking around and seeing that these strikes are starting to show some progress for people, and so other workers are getting a taste that they can do it, too,” she said. “Not to say that any of these new strikes are directly related to that — it’s just sort of the atmosphere [of success] that surrounds them.” 

Horizontal solidarity 

Susan Schurman, who teaches labor studies and employment relations at Rutgers University, told VOA that in recent labor actions, she has seen a dynamic at play that has not been present recently: cross-union cooperation. 

“The last time the Writers Guild went on strike, SAG-AFTRA didn’t even show up,” Schurman said. “This time, I went to a couple of rallies in New York and the stage actors — Actors Equity —  were there. The stagehands [the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees] were there. The Teamsters were there. The Communication Workers [of America] were there. The building trades were there.  

“We call this ‘horizontal labor solidarity’ across unions,” Schurman said. “This is when labor really makes gains. It’s important that you have what we call ‘vertical solidarity,’ within your own union. You have to have that in order to engage in a strike. But it’s not enough. You have to have the support of other unions.” 

Horizontal solidarity was commonplace in the mid-20th century, she said, but has not been a notable factor in labor job actions in several decades.  

“We have not seen that, like we’re seeing this summer, in a very long time,” she said.

Autoworkers dispute 

The UAW has a long history of striking in order to achieve better contracts for its members, and the current contracts with GM, Ford and Stellantis are all scheduled to expire in September. 

Shawn Fain, the leader of the UAW, announced last week that his 160,000 members are prepared to put down their tools and that blame for any work stoppage will lie with the companies’ management. 

“If the Big Three don’t give us our fair share, then they’re choosing to strike themselves, and we’re not afraid to take action,” he told reporters last week. 

In a sign of how acrimonious the discussions have become, Fain broke with tradition and refused to meet company executives for a public handshake as negotiations got under way, as other UAW leaders have done in the past.  

The automakers themselves have said they want to reach a deal but point out that they are trying to remake their companies for a world in which electric vehicles are expected to replace many of the gasoline-powered cars and trucks they currently produce. They warn that the transition will lead to inevitable disruption for their workforce. 

Teamsters and UPS 

The Teamsters union represents 340,000 UPS workers poised to strike on August 1. The contract negotiations, which broke down in early July and restarted just this week, are focused on compensation for workers. 

One key point is that as the job market has tightened over the past year, the company has been forced to raise the starting salaries it offers in order to attract more workers. However, it did not also raise the wages of many of its more experienced workers. This means that some UPS employees with years of seniority are earning wages equivalent to those of new hires. 

A strike by UPS workers could be damaging economically, with the think tank Anderson Economic Group estimating that a 10-day stoppage would cost upward of $7 billion when workers’ lost pay, the company’s lost profits and damage to UPS customers are combined. 

In a statement that accompanied the announcement that it would return to the bargaining table, the delivery company emphasized the need for a prompt resolution to the problem. 

“We are prepared to increase our industry-leading pay and benefits, but need to work quickly to finalize a fair deal that provides certainty for our customers, our employees and businesses across the country,” it said.
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After Russia withdrew from a deal allowing Ukraine to export grain through ports on the Black Sea, the Kremlin launched attacks on Ukrainian ports and grain hubs. Anna Kosstutschenko spoke with Ukrainian farmers about how this will impact them. VOA footage by Pavel Suhodolskiy
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Nigeria’s weak electric grid had led many of its citizens to rely on gasoline-fueled generators for power. But the president’s controversial removal of a costly fuel subsidy in May saw gasoline prices triple, spurring Nigerians to switch to generators fueled by cheaper and cleaner propane.

Rasheed Ayodeji, a lawyer in Abuja, is one of more than 10,000 Nigerians who have switched to generators powered by liquefied petroleum gas.

The switch to LPG, also known as propane, is in response to the cost of gasoline, which has tripled since authorities ended a fuel subsidy in May.

Ayodeji said that powering his generator with cooking gas is less expensive.

“I was skeptical at first, so I said let me just give it a try because I am someone that, I’m not resistant to change. … With my experience so far with this one week, my fuel expenses have been cut by 50% for now, and with the gas I still have left, I’m very sure it will still cut up to 60%.”

In 2013, Philip Obin started importing hybrid carburetors that converted gasoline generators to run on LPG. For years, demand was slow.

A decade later, however, his sales reached a new peak. He said that following the fuel subsidy removal, he sold more than 10,000 units in less than three weeks.  

“The product is selling like wildfire, and that’s because of the cost of petrol, which has moved from 190 or 180 to 550 or 540 per liter across Nigeria…We call them hybrid in the sense that it allows you to run either on petrol or cooking gas LPG,” he said.  

Obin said the switch is easy and simple to make.

“Essentially, you have to pull out the existing carburetor from your generator and install the hybrid carburetor, then you plug in the gas cylinder with your regulator, of course, and then you power up your generator, it’s as simple as that,” he said.

Some people are concerned about the safety of using cooking gas in generators that were originally designed to work with gasoline.

Obin said there has never been a single incident with the carburetor over the past decade.

“We’ve not had a single case of explosion arising from someone using our hybrid carburetor to run generators,” he said.

However, Chuks Edison, an Abuja-based electrical expert and generator repairman, recommends that people exercise caution during installation.

“If you must go into it, you must be very careful. Put so much measure in place, and make sure that your generator is in good condition, that it doesn’t have some kind of leakage, or the plug head must be there because the plug head is the most important one…you must keep your cylinder very far from the generator,” he said.

Authorities from Lagos State are also assessing the safety of the product. 
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Canada’s recently launched immigration work permit program is no longer accepting new applications since receiving an overwhelming response and reaching its cap of 10,000 applicants in two days.

Aiming to attract highly skilled technology professionals from the United States with H-1B work visas, Canada unveiled the initiative in late June.

Within 48 hours of its July 16 launch, the system reached capacity.

“Status: Closed. You can no longer apply,” said a message on the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) website. “We reached the cap of 10,000 applications for this initiative on July 17, 2023.”

H-1B visas are for nonimmigrant foreign workers with specialized skills, and the move is part of the country’s new Tech Talent Strategy.

“The Government of Canada is embracing Canada’s emerging role as a leader in global tech talent recruitment and attraction to ensure Canada is not only filling in-demand jobs today, but also attracting the skills and business talent to create the jobs of tomorrow,” said an IRCC statement issued last month.

The statement followed a November announcement in which the government set a goal to tackle an impending labor shortage.

By 2025, the country wants to welcome 1.45 million immigrants, focusing on people trained in health care and other in-demand job skills, and securing a skilled workforce for key sectors of its economy.

Canada’s population of 38.25 million represents about 11.5% of the 331.9 million in the United States, where the H-1B visa category currently allows more than 85,000 highly skilled foreigners to work in the country for at least three years.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reported that for fiscal year 2024, the agency received 780,884 applications from employers and approved 110,791 applications. In fiscal 2023, applications totaled 483,927, and 127,600 people were selected.

Canada’s new work program does not lead to permanent residence, but spouses and dependents of the 10,000 H-1B visa holders will be eligible to apply for study or work permits or temporary resident visas.

In the U.S., holders of H-1B visas can apply for legal permanent residence, but only the spouses of those with a pending residence application are eligible for employment authorization.

It remains to be seen how successful Canada will be in poaching workers from the U.S.
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture is seeking to lower food prices and boost competition by joining with 31 states and Washington, D.C., to target price fixing and other anticompetitive behavior in the food and agriculture sectors. 

The USDA on Wednesday said it would coordinate with the bipartisan group of attorneys general on antitrust enforcement amid concerns about industry practices. 

Farmers and ranchers have for decades complained of poor prices and unfair contracts from the biggest buyers and processors in the highly consolidated agriculture sector. 

Months of food price inflation, only recently abating, have also raised questions from farm groups and lawmakers about whether companies were artificially hiking prices. 

“We can ensure a more robust and competitive agricultural sector,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in a statement. 

The USDA partnership with states will focus on anticompetitive practices including price fixing and gouging, as well as create new research programs to study the issue, the department said. 

In the coming months, USDA will also finalize new rules under the Packers and Stockyards Act, a century-old antitrust law meant to protect farmers from anticompetitive conduct, a senior administration official said in a call with reporters. 

USDA has already proposed two of three expected rules. 

The agency will also disburse additional grants to expand meat and poultry processing capacity that would increase the number of options for ranchers, the official said. 

President Joe Biden, a Democrat who has pledged to tackle anticompetitive conduct across the economy, is scheduled to meet with Vilsack and other members of his competition council later Wednesday. 
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U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen this week said that if the Biden administration issues expected new rules limiting outbound U.S. investment in China, they will not be highly disruptive to trade between the two countries, and will focus on national security concerns.

“We are looking carefully at outbound investment controls, and they would serve as a complement to the export controls that we have in place, to make sure that we’ve covered all the channels by which technologies can be transferred to China that we think pose national security concerns,” Yellen said.

The rules, expected from the Biden administration sometime this summer, would focus on semiconductors, quantum computing and artificial intelligence, the Treasury secretary said. Yellen added that they will be “narrowly scoped” and “would not be broad controls that would affect U.S. investment broadly in China, or in my opinion, have a fundamental impact on affecting the investment climate for China.”

Yellen’s remarks came in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Monday, from the sidelines of a meeting of the finance ministers of the world’s largest economies in Gandhinagar, India.

Yellen indicated that she had spoken to Chinese officials about the rules, saying, “What I tried to explain to our Chinese counterparts is that our desire is to make these U.S. policies clearly national-security focused, transparent and narrow, and that we’re not attempting to stifle economic progress in China. We have, and want to continue to have, deep economic ties.”

Yellen was careful in her language to suggest that a final decision about whether to issue the outbound investment rules has not been made.

Addition to export controls

The Biden administration’s effort over the past two years to prevent China from obtaining certain technologies, and a years-long effort by the U.S. to block certain Chinese technology firms from participating in essential infrastructure, like 5G broadband systems, have angered China.

Most recently, the administration has put measures in place to block Chinese companies from purchasing cutting-edge microchips and the equipment to manufacture them.

These policies have led to accusations by China that the aim of the U.S. is to block China’s economic progress in order to prevent it from playing a larger role in the global economy and in international relations.

Those concerns were repeated after Yellen’s recent remarks.

China replies

In a press conference on Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning commented on the coming restrictions.

“China opposes U.S. politicizing and weaponizing of trade and tech issues,” she said. “It is in no one’s interest to place arbitrary curbs on normal technology cooperation and trade, violate the market economy principles and destabilize global industrial and supply chains.”

She added, “We hope that the U.S. will follow through on President Biden’s commitment of not seeking to ‘decouple’ from China, halt China’s economic development or contain China and create a sound environment for China-U.S. economic cooperation and trade.”

In her remarks Monday, Yellen stressed the administration’s desire to improve relations with China, saying, “We now have a new economic team in China that we need to establish relationships with. We need to get our relationship back in a more stable place with a floor under it, and try to promote general understanding between our countries.”

Chinese economic woes

In the background of the discussion of U.S. restrictions on outbound investment in China is increasing evidence that the Chinese economy is struggling. Economic growth has slowed sharply, and the yuan has been losing value against other global currencies.

On Monday, official numbers released by Beijing said that the economy had grown by just 0.8% from the end of the first quarter of 2023 through the end of the second quarter, a rate much lower than expected.

Also this week, the country’s troubled real estate conglomerate, Evergrande, revealed that in 2021 and 2022, it lost more than $81 billion, and still carries obligations worth $340 billion, including some $140 billion to raw materials suppliers and many thousands of Chinese who paid in advance for homes that were never built. Evergrande has become a symbol of the country’s deeply troubled real estate sector, which is awash in bad debt.

In her remarks on Monday, Yellen noted China’s struggles, and said that there is some danger of weakness in its economy having an impact around the world.

“China has seen slower growth than they expected upon opening up from COVID,” Yellen said. “Consumer spending has been relatively weak. It looks like consumers are more focused on building back their savings buffers, and so growth has been slow when, as you know, youth unemployment is quite high there.”

She said that she expects a slowdown in China to have only a small impact on the U.S.

“Countries do depend on strong Chinese growth to promote growth in their own economies, particularly countries in Asia, and slow growth in China can have some negative spillover to the United States,” she said. “Our growth is slowed but our labor market continues to be quite strong. I don’t expect a recession.”
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