Looking back at 2019 from workers’ perspective

Bill Knight column for 1-13, 14 or 15, 2020

The number of Americans who engaged in work stoppages last year was at a 30-year high, on pace to equal 2018’s strikes, when almost half a million U.S. workers walked off the job. That said, such “days of idleness” were still less than the levels that workers sustained during the entire post-World War II period through 1979.

However, elsewhere:

* organized labor helped increase the minimum wage in 21 states effective this year, with an additional 26 cities and counties also increasing minima. Further, the National Employment Law Project reports than 22 other cities and counties and 2 more states are poised to hike minimum wages in coming months,

* voters elected dozens of pro-worker candidates up and down the ballot, and

* 64% of the public approves of unions – a 50-year high.

In the public sector, teachers in Chicago, Denver and Oakland, plus in Massachusetts and West Virginia, struck school districts, and the “Red for Ed” rallies drew thousands in Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Chicago teachers’ 11-day strike showed the importance of solidarity, too, with backing by school support staff and park district workers, who often deal with the same youth. Also, another 7,000 school employees in Service Employees International Union (SEIU) simultaneously struck (for the first time), creating a united front helped even more by Teamsters who honored picket lines.

Meanwhile, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) held short strikes at the University of California system.

Like the Chicago Teachers Union, the United Food and Commercial Workers benefited from solidarity with other sectors of the labor movement. Nearly 2,000 Teamsters who drive trucks for more than 200 Stop & Shop supermarkets in the Northeast or the chain’s suppliers refused to make deliveries during the strike, forcing stores to close. One of the largest work stoppages in recent years, that supermarkets strike had some 31,000 workers walk off the job at about 240 locations in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. After 11 days, workers agreed to a new three-year contract that provided wage increases, maintained employee health-care and retirement benefits, and kept time-and-a-half pay for employees who work Sundays.

The year also saw one of the longest strikes against a major auto company in decades as the United Auto Workers six-week strike against General Motors ended in October after 57 percent of GM workers approved a settlement.

On the horizon, depending on the 2020 election’s outcome for the Senate and White House, groundwork was laid for the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, a broad package of pro-labor reforms introduced by U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) and co-sponsored by 215 House members. The PRO Act would eliminate Right-To-Work laws, impose new penalties on employers who retaliate against union organizing, and prevent employers from delaying negotiations on contracts. The bill passed out of the House Committee on Education and Labor, and while it would be stonewalled in a GOP-majority Senate controlled by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, it demonstrates a commitment to organized labor.

Meanwhile, here’s a month-by-month sampling of relevant headlines from Press Associates Union News Service:

January: Trump plays to his base as his federal shutdown/lockout hurts rest of the country, continuing for weeks until labor leaders shut down New York’s LaGuardia Airport and threaten a general strike.

February: Union members, leaders pan Trump’s State of the Union address.

March: With strong union and public support, sponsors of Medicare For All unveil the legislation; labor’s divided on progressive Green New Deal.

April: Nine Democratic contenders addressed 3,000 unionists at the North America’s Building Trades Legislative Conference asking for labor backing.

May: Drivers from Uber and Lyft conduct worldwide strike over low pay, management control.

June: U.S. Supreme Court rules that political gerrymandering is OK, but Justices send Trump’s Census “citizenship” question back for review.

July: Thousands of Los Angeles grocery workers authorize a strike.

August: Service Employees launch “Unions For All” campaign as U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders also presents a comprehensive, pro-labor package designed to promote unionization.

September: Trump-named, GOP-majority National Labor Relations Board rules against workers arguing against “independent contractor” classification.

October: National Nurses United cites preserving “the rule of law” in supporting impeachment probe.

November: UAW president Gary Jones resigns under fire.

December: Miners’ pension solution, permanent “Cadillac tax” repeal both highlight workers’ wins in final version of Congress’ money bills.