There is a lot to celebrate this Labor Day after a season that was proudly dubbed the "summer of strikes." This summer, thousands of workers across the country have taken collective action to advocate for themselves, their coworkers and future employees. While the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) double strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) has been making headlines, many others across the nation have been forming their own picket lines. From nurses in New Jersey to bus drivers in Louisiana to city workers in Los Angeles, there were over 100 labor actions held across 168 locations between June 1 and Aug. 31 according to Cornell University's Labor Action Tracker.
Overwhelmingly, workers are concerned with issues like earning wages that support the cost of living, addressing staffing shortages that cause safety issues and unfair workloads, and securing health care benefits. They are also standing in solidarity with each other. Starbucks union members were seen on the SAG-AFTRA picket lines, small businesses across the country coordinated and shut their doors to protest Ron DeSantis' anti-immigration laws, and Amazon workers from California traveled to warehouse locations all across the country.
Though summer is coming to a close, the scope of labor organizing is not. The WGA and SAG-AFTRA have still not reached a deal and neither have the nurses in New Jersey. A United Postal Service strike was recently avoided, but workers at companies like Ford, General Motors and Stellantis and tens of thousands of healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente hospitals and clinics across the country could strike in the near future. Even reality TV stars are thinking about organizing for better treatment and conditions.
Read on to learn about some of the biggest strikes with workers who made this a "hot labor summer."
