Strike for the Record

The largest health care strike in U.S. history is the latest in a year of labor unrest.

By , and
357

Happy Friday! The McRib is back! But not everywhere. Much like a sticky, saucy golden ticket, the famed McDonald’s sandwich will only be made available at certain, so-far undisclosed restaurants. Good luck, McRib hunters!

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

  • A Russian missile strike on Thursday destroyed a café and grocery store in a village outside of Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine, killing at least 51 civilians—including children. The attack was the deadliest in the region since the start of the war, with one of the highest civilian death tolls in a single strike. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on European leaders to provide his country with missile defense systems to intercept such attacks. “Until there is a fully effective air-defense system, children cannot attend schools,” he said yesterday. Germany announced yesterday that it would send a second Patriot air-defense system to Ukraine. 
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Thursday that Russia had finished and successfully tested a nuclear-powered and nuclear-capable ballistic missile known as the Burevestnik. The missile was first discussed publicly in 2018 as an experimental weapon that supposedly has significantly increased range compared to traditional cruise missiles. Little else is currently known about the weapon and its reliability. Putin also signaled on Thursday that he is considering backing out of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
  • A United States F-16 fighter jet shot down an armed Turkish drone in northern Syria yesterday after the drone flew within 500 meters of American troops on the ground, violating a U.S.-declared restricted operating zone. The situation marked a rare use of force between NATO allies. U.S. military officials described the shootdown as a “regrettable incident,” but said they made repeated attempts to contact the Turkish military before downing the drone. The officials also emphasized there was no indication Turkey was intentionally targeting U.S. forces.
  • The Biden administration announced it would resume construction of the border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and would waive more than two dozen federal laws—like the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act—to expedite the process. “There is presently an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States in order to prevent unlawful entries into the United States in the project areas,” the waiver notice, signed by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday morning, stated. By Thursday, Mayorkas was attempting to walk back the statement, saying the language “is being taken out of context, and it does not signify any change in policy whatsoever.” President Joe Biden said yesterday that his hands were tied since the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is required to spend funds appropriated in 2019 for border wall construction.
  • France officially began its withdrawal of troops from Niger this week, French defense ministry officials said Thursday. All of the approximately 1,500 French troops and military assets in the country are scheduled to be withdrawn by the end of the year, following calls from Niger’s military junta for a French exit.
  • A federal court approved a new congressional map for Alabama yesterday following two failed attempts by the Republican-controlled state legislature to produce a map that met legal scrutiny under the Voting Rights Act. The new map maintained the state’s current majority-black districts, and created another district with a near majority-black population—which could potentially result in Democrats flipping a seat in 2024.
  • Former President Donald Trump allegedly disclosed sensitive details regarding a U.S. nuclear submarine to Australian businessman Anthony Pratt months after leaving the White House, ABC News reported Thursday. Pratt, a Mar-a-Lago member, then reportedly shared that information with several other people, including journalists and Australian officials. He’s among scores of individuals identified to testify against Trump in special counsel Jack Smith’s federal case against Trump for his alleged mishandling of classified documents. 
  • Trump endorsed House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan for speaker of the House late last night in a post on Truth Social. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise has also announced his intention to seek the gavel.

Strikes, Strikes Everywhere 

Healthcare workers protest outside a Kaiser Permanente medical center in Baldwin Park, California on Oct. 4, 2023. (Photo by Xinhua via Getty Images)
Healthcare workers protest outside a Kaiser Permanente medical center in Baldwin Park, California on Oct. 4, 2023. (Photo by Xinhua via Getty Images)

Striking United Auto Workers (UAW) union members may have thought they were doing a pretty good job of getting their message across when President Joe Biden joined them on the picket line late last month—but have they thought about the effectiveness of aerial advertising over the Ford, Stellantis, and General Motors headquarters? If so, striking New Jersey nurses know a guy. 

As a tight labor market increases workers’ bargaining power and inflation undercuts their earnings, tens of thousands of workers have chosen to make known their frustrations. Some workers’ concerns stem from the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Other workers fear the ways technology could change—and potentially undermine—the nature of their work. Many are driven to action by kitchen table issues like wages and pensions. And polling suggests most Americans back workers to varying degrees in their efforts to change the state of play—as do an increasingly bipartisan contingent of politicians.

As we’ve reported in recent weeks, this year has seen a spate of high-profile strikes—and as soon as one ends, another tense negotiation or walkout crops up in a different part of the economy. Over the summer, Hollywood actors joined writers on the picket line for their first concurrent strike since Ronald Reagan was the president of the Screen Actors Guild. This past July, unionized United Parcel Service workers reached a contract agreement with UPS just days before they were set to go on strike. Tens of thousands of autoworkers represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW) union are, for the first time, striking at each of the “Big Three” U.S. car manufacturers—Stellantis, General Motors, and Ford—simultaneously. In New Jersey, 1,700 nurses at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital are in their third month of work stoppages over staffing shortages and low wages. And just this Wednesday, 75,000 Kaiser Permanente health care workers walked off the job, kicking off the largest health care strike in U.S. history. 

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  1. Avatar photo
    Frank Lee

    I have observed that my left leaning friends cannot seem to grasp or accept long-term consequences of their policy demands. It is like something is broken in their thinking apparatus where they can only contemplate a complex issue up until they stop feeling good about it. Only when the negative consequences grow to the point that THEY are generating negative feelings in excess of the criticism of their demand will they shift to supporting solutions that solve for the negative consequences.

    Crime from defunding the cops demands and illegal immigrant impacts from open borders demands are two examples. As the negative consequences of these two demands have grown, they are now causing bad feelings in liberal land and thus a sudden epiphany of need to solve the problem.

    There is a similar trend in my liberal town... blocking of growth based on their need for environmental demands to be met, and now the roads are falling apart, the parks are no maintained and crime has increased... all due to the lack of tax revenue that the community needed from the new developments voted down.

    Crisis isn't enough here unless it generates a strong emotional response. It is only crisis that has a direct impact on their liberal lives.

    And this tendency really flies in the face of the "caring" label that liberals like to assume they deserve. The actual observation is that liberals, as a species, are more apt to value their own benefit/harm over the macro impacts to everyone else. And THAT makes them more dangerous in power.

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    1. Avatar photo
      Magpie

      Do your "friends" know you talk about them this way?

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        Frank Lee

        Yes. Let's do coffee one day. I am sure we would like each other even though I probably will not agree with most of your political views.

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          Magpie

          No thanks. Policy disagreements are one thing, smearing one "species" as being selfish morons is quite another.

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          1. Avatar photo
            Frank Lee

            Naw. That species does not differentiate between smearing and policy disagreements.

            Signed,

            Racist, semi-fascist member of a basket of irredeemable deplorables.

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    2. Avatar photo
      PJ

      I have noticed the same with my "right" leaning friends on issues.

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    3. Keith Blank

      "There is a similar trend in my liberal town... blocking of growth based on their need for environmental demands to be met, and now the roads are falling apart, the parks are no maintained and crime has increased... all due to the lack of tax revenue that the community needed from the new developments voted down."

      I'm actually seeing similar in my republican town. Growth seems to be a bad word and local populist politicians don't want to stick their neck out because they get a few people on social media making a stink. The reality is that things get more expensive, wages increase, etc and if you don't generate tax revenue from business / growth then you have to increase taxes. Then the real fun begins.

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        Frank Lee

        Yeah... some conservatives get onboard the growth-opposition train.

        Where I live residential development results in net-positive cashflow to the city for about 15 years and then because of property tax assessment rules, the tax revenue generated starts to be less than are the city services required. Depending on the development, some are require supplemental taxes to help bridge the gap.

        However, commercial development always nets positive perpetual returns (except if vacant). In fact, commercial activity is the bedrock source of all government tax inflows. I don't find many Republicans blocking commercial development. But attempt to put up an affordable housing development and Republicans will certainly join Democrats to block it.

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        1. Keith Blank

          Try to put even nice apartments, in places zoned for them, in my town and you better duck. Commercial development is hit or miss as the public gets upset about PILOT programs. The issue we have is more about Republicans bowing to facebook rants.

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    4. Johnnyberge

      I’m curious. Can you point to any metropolitan or suburban areas where the police were actually defunded, or had their funding cut significantly in response to the calls for defunding? I was of the impression that it was just a slogan that didn’t lead to any funding reductions.

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      1. Avatar photo
        Frank Lee

        There are several. Here is one example. https://www.thecentersquare.com/missouri/article_9e052c00-d51d-11eb-9dc9-f31185f4c020.html

        But it was the radical DAs. The changes to criminal felonies and punishment. The scapegoat social-political demonizing of police in general that has made their jobs more difficult and has resulted in mass retirement and trouble recruiting.

        Why do you think crime has increased in all of these Democrat-run cities?

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        1. Johnnyberge

          Thanks. Agree that DA’s in many cities do not pursue a lot of crimes. I think it is partly a combination of budget issues, jail overcrowding, sentencing guidelines, and their socio-political beliefs. Plus, they have to get elected. But it seems that the pendulum is now swinging in the other direction in many cities, with calls for more police and more aggressive prosecution and sentencing. Often it is the residents of these cities, including the majority of POC, who suffer first hand the effects of crime, and want there to be police around when they need them. I think the Defund lobby was largely fringe progressives who are out of touch with the real world.

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          1. Avatar photo
            C C Writer

            Lately you can take your shopping list to Walgreens without much success--either what you want is gone or it's behind plexiglass and you have to get an associate involved. Too much hassle (for both me and them). And we're talking about items under $5. It's called punishing the innocent, I guess.

            Regular people are starting to ask questions. Eventually they will notice these things and find out how they got that way.

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    PJ

    LUK: I have not been thinking about that, just how many more. Many is my expectation.

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    Retired Prosecutor

    The border wall developments are getting all of the ink here (yes, they've resumed building what some Democrats called a monument to "White Supremacy"), but more of note and unmentioned by TD is our change of policy regarding the huge Venezuelan migrant population we now have. Anyone of them who came here in the last 18 months is to be repatriated back to Venezuela, and the Maduro government is very desirous of their return.

    Ironically, of all of the migrants, Venezuelans likely have the most credible claim to political asylum, in light of the tyrannical nature of the Maduro regime. So why the change? The Administration knows that fuel prices could kill them in the election (gas is $6+ here in Cali) and so is making nice with the Maduro government. Expect a future deal to get petroleum from Venezuela, human rights be damned.

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      Jean-Christophe Jouffrey

      Dear Retired Prosecutor,

      Obama was the Deporter in Chief.

      It is often the case that it is the party supposedly opposed to a policy which can implement this policy.

      But more importantly, as I said in another comment, it is the lack of comprehensive policy which leads 2 administrations to resort in the same difficult conditions to the same knee-jerk and ineffective reactions.

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  4. Mattfrommo

    It seems so obvious that it is almost axiomatic, but there has to be some deep kind of human pathology behind the reality that no human being has ever believed that they are being paid as much as they are worth. Literally, no one ever says, "I'm getting a great deal, probably more than my labor can justify, really."

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    1. Avatar photo
      Jean-Christophe Jouffrey

      Dear Mattfrommo,

      There are many people aware of their own incompetence, who wonder why they are paid so much to do a job which is beyond them.

      But they are not going to tell you about it. 😏

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  5. Avatar photo
    DougAz

    For your weekend reading:

    Noah Smith's (last weekend but great) 5 interesting things for the weekend:
    a. Working class wealth is improving
    b. Educated people are much (MUCH !) healthier
    c. Discussion on zero-sum thinking and positive-sum thinking - economically
    d. Getting good data is really hard --- Noah is an incrediblly data driven thinker and writer
    e. The difference between indigenous knowledge and scienc
    https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/at-least-five-interesting-things-b57


    https://www.quantamagazine.org/ - This is a fabulous (yes I'm credentialed original half-century old geek and nerd member) - but read about some very cool Nobel winners and their work that directly impacts you:
    1. The mRNA Nobel winners -- vaccines naturally
    2. The Quantum Dot winners -- super amazing displays/TVs
    3. The attosecond Nobel -- What is an attosecond?

    One attosecond is one-quintillionth of a second, or 0.000000000000000001 seconds. More attoseconds pass in the span of one second than there are seconds that have passed since the birth of the universe.

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  6. Avatar photo
    Michael Dan Martin

    Imagine if instead of being so reflexively anti-Trump, Biden and his administration really had acted like the adults in the room and kept in place the Trump administration’s policies on the border, which were not extremist and, more importantly, were working fairly well.

    I am afraid, though, that this will become the norm. Like a lion that takes over a pride and kills the lion clubs that aren’t his, our political parties have reached the point where wiping out the DNA of the other is considered tantamount to survival.

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    1. BPhillips

      I wasn't a big fan of the child separation policy.

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        Michael Dan Martin

        Nor was I, but this is what I am talking about. Trump may be an uncaring, Fascist oaf in your opinion but that doesn't mean that the Remain in Mexico policy wasn't well-crafted and working. Biden didn't inherit the child separation policy, he inherited the better-crafted one.

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        1. BPhillips

          I think Biden's rule that replaced Title 42 (which expired with the pandemic ending) does what's legally allowable - it prohibits asylum seekers from 4 Central American countries from applying if they don't use legal routes to do so. Mexico rejected reinstituting "stay in Mexico policy earlier this year.

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            Michael Dan Martin

            Mexico may have rejected reinstituting it, but that is well after Biden dropped it. If he hadn't done so, there would have been nothing to reinstitute.

            It is not so much the policy questions, which I suppose we could argue about from now to kingdom come. (For instance, legally allowable in whose estimation?). It is the way that both parties act as if anything passed by the other party is tainted by default.

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      2. Drsterrett

        Ok - but that hasn't been US policy since summer 2018.

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        1. BPhillips

          It was a Trump border policy - didn't get nearly enough attention in my opinion (buried under the other 100 or so despicable things trump was doing).

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          1. Drsterrett

            Disagree. I recall congresspeople crying at the border, a huge backlash in the media, and Trump, facing backlash, abandoning the policy 2 months after it was announced.

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  7. Avatar photo
    BloggerBarbie

    On labor, I think a lot of it is just the mismatch between wages and the skyrocketing cost of living. I was just talking to a woman in my field who's trying to hire, but they're getting very few applications, because the offered salary is not enough to live in her city. In classical theory, this would mean that the wages would go up to attract applicants, but the money is not materializing in the municipal budgets, so instead, they're dealing with empty spots, or lowering requirements, which devalues the degrees that people were required to get, which leads to frustration and anger. This isn't new--I left Boston at the end of 2007 because the wages did not meet the rent costs (and the city has a residency requirement which prohibits seeking somewhere with cheaper housing), and there's a point in life where you just can't face looking for another roommate to move in.

    As for guesses on the next industry? Delivery services, maybe. Or gig workers, though it would be very easy to scab those. Restaurant workers wouldn't be a huge surprise. Or maybe tech. Those companies pay well, but they also headquarter themselves in incredibly expensive places.

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      BloggerBarbie

      On the restaurant industry, YT just pushed this at me. Looks like Chicago restaurant workers are already organizing.
      https://youtu.be/XLG3pX6tNv0?si=Ys5sXvzabtGNn0wx

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  8. Avatar photo
    DeniseMc

    I truly do not understand the narrative out of the White House regarding the border wall funding. It is correct that appropriated funding cannot be reappropriated for other purposes without Congressional approval. It’s also a huge PITA to do it. When I managed a large federal budget, if I didn’t (or couldn’t ) spend it in time it was either taken from me to pass to another requirement that could, or it was just lost. But it’s not really lost. It’s just lost to me. At the very highest levels within our government, it would be returned to the Treasury. But here we’re not even talking real dollars. It’s just funding authority to spend up to a certain level. Our annual deficit is more than the total budget of DOD so it’s all a dream anyway. 🤓

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      Jean-Christophe Jouffrey

      Dear DeniseMc,

      Except that Trump used for the Wall, funds which had been appropriated for the Armed Forces (infrastructure, education, etc.), which very surprisingly went without much opposition.

      Yet, we see from the Biden administration the same fake excuses which we already saw with the withdrawal from Afghanistan, which was never a Congress-ratified treaty under Trump, and had no binding obligation for the Biden administration to implement.

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        DeniseMc

        Absolutely right, he was taken to court and lost on appeal if I remember correctly. $10B diverted from DOD and mostly unrecoverable by that point. I don’t doubt the story they asked and were denied to move the funds, but the rest of the story is nonsense.

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          Jean-Christophe Jouffrey

          Dear DeniseMc,

          The Executive abusing the power of the purse which belongs to Congress should be an impeacheable offense... but they got away with it.

          Worse, they continue to get away with it in the next administration: if they were additional constitutional appropriations made for the wall by the Trump administration, then 10B Dollars should be removed from this, and sent back to the original appropriations.

          All of this for a wall which is useless. The wall is NOT on the border, it is entirely in the USA, and the terrain between the wall and the border is the USA. Therefore any illegal immigrant on the outside of the wall can legally ask for asylum... which is what the wall is supposed to stop.

          Unless one consider this as the Korean DMZ, and one shoots the immigrants on the other side of the wall. I hear that Ted Cruz, Kyle Rittenhouse and Eric Trump volunteered for this duty: it's a dirty job, but somebody has got to do it.😉

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    2. Avatar photo
      Retired Prosecutor

      The Administration claims they have to choice but to follow through on Trump era legislation. Their hands are tied . . . . just like they were for the Iranian withdrawal. I call Bravo Sierra.

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        DeniseMc

        The part we will not “see” is what is actually being done in furtherance of this budget item. Appropriations have expiration dates. I’d have to dig deeper into the true machinations but it would probably just annoy me. The messaging has been horrible on this!

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  9. Avatar photo
    Dave Conant - MO

    I'm surprised that the unions aren't asking for some equity participation as part of their compensation. If they want a piece of the real action, they should get on the same path that their overcompensated bosses are on.

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    1. Drsterrett

      The thought among union leaders is employee stock ownership plans incentivize unions to become weaker bargainers. Makes intuitive sense as strike actions and higher wages hurt share value.

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        Dave Conant - MO

        Depends on perspective and time frame. In the short term, which I grant typifies both management and union thinking, the union argument makes intuitive sense. From a long range viewpoint, a more engaged and effective work force should create a bigger pie for everyone and provide both short-term and long-term benefits.

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        1. Drsterrett

          I agree - my cynical take is the interests of the union and its leadership don't always align.

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            Dave Conant - MO

            Almost like Congress and voters.

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      Brian

      Not a bad suggestion, but would they be able to tolerate losing value in their positions when their employer hits a rough patch, or a recession hits, or anything else that reduces their stake? I agree senior execs and their boards have ways around those losses for themselves, but the average worker?

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        Dave Conant - MO

        As long as the base pay covers living expense, the equity position is essentially a long term investment (retirement fund) and short term variations in value aren't important. It's a tough call, but in a well-managed company, on the whole and historically, the investment has paid off well. One can also make the argument that increased worker engagement tends to improve company performance and results.

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          Brian

          Good points. The cynic in me says that many likely don’t understand the cyclical aspect of the economy and it’s impact on stocks, nor be willing to quietly accept fluctuations in their stake. I’ve just seen way too many workers who haven’t educated themselves enough on financial matters, who could easily fall into the victim trap and demand that somebody make them whole. Either their employers, or the government. The lack of financial education is a major problem in this country. I think we see it in the UAW demands to go back to the outdated pension model which is long gone. I saw it in a good friend, college educated, who shocked me when he said he wished he’d understood 401k’s long before he actually did, in his 50’s. He never took advantage of his.

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            Dave Conant - MO

            Equally good points. For as many waitresses that I saw retire as millionaires through the Employee Stock Option Plan, I've seen their nominal bosses who couldn't plan for next month, let alone retirement. It's a tough conversation, and one that will take more thought and expertise than is present in either Congress or the upper echelons of union management.

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        C C Writer

        Lincicome column idea.

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    David.Link

    In response to today's "Let Us Know," here's a hint for folks who want the right answer: Look for another industry that is already heavily unionized. Your article is very clear, I thought, about the fact that only about 10 percent of US workers are even in unions to begin with, and all of the labor action you discuss is in already unionized industries. I appreciate your candor in pointing out these facts, but I think one of the logical conclusions is that while Americans say they support unions, they might not be joining them because what they support is the idea of workers getting a better deal, but they might be able to make a distinction that most reporting doesn't: that union management is little better than business management, probably as corrupt, and not really worth signing up for. Union management has done a stellar job over the years of getting headlines and public support, but maybe not such a good job of convincing workers of their value.

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