Opinion |

As trust erodes, labor actions gain momentum

For many, Labor Day was like any Monday holiday: the perfect excuse to kick back, relax and think about anything other than work — a bit ironic, considering its origin. President Grover Cleveland made Labor Day a national holiday in 1894, to recognize the contributions of American workers and labor unions to our country’s strength and prosperity.

It was also a way to acknowledge their mistreatment: Cleveland signed the law in the wake of a strike by railroad and Pullman sleeping car company workers. Federal troops were called in, and 30 people died.

On this Labor Day, the vibe was more akin to 1894, when you consider worker angst in the U.S. According to Rob Pelaez of the Boston Herald, more than 500 labor actions, including strikes and protests, have occurred since the beginning of the year, involving hundreds of thousands of workers.

The disputes are sometimes about working conditions — but more often, about wages. A Gartner survey last year found that just 32 percent of workers feel they’re paid fairly. Reports of inequality have sharpened the pain: A Statista Research Department report estimated that in 2021, CEOs received nearly 400 times the average annual salary of their production and nonsupervisory workers. The Economic Policy Institute offered a different take: Between 1978 and 2019, CEO compensation grew 940 percent, while typical worker compensation rose just 12 percent.

A chasm like that is bound to inspire unrest. In a sense, Labor Day symbolizes a slowdown, as winter draws closer. But this year, labor actions are only heating up, across multiple sectors of the economy:

• Hollywood is in the midst of a two-pronged labor battle that began in the spring, with members of the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA (actors’ union) on strike against the studios. Neither dispute appears to be headed for resolution anytime soon.
• Unionization efforts are cropping up in Starbucks stores around the country, including San Diego. Some 600 complaints of unfair labor practices have been filed with the National Labor Relations Board and in June, 3,000 workers went on strike when managers at several locations removed Pride month décor. 
• Members of the United Auto Workers are edging closer to a strike against General Motors, Stellantis and Ford. Their contract ends on Thursday. 

Associated Press writer Tom Krishner said that even the UAW’s president has called their demands “audacious.” They include a 46 percent wage hike; a 32-hour work week, with 40 hours of pay; and a restoration of traditional pensions.

Krishner said the UAW was inspired, in part, by “increasingly emboldened U.S. unions of all kinds” and major corporate concessions. In July, UPS negotiated a five-year contract deal with the Teamsters union, averting a strike by its 340,000 drivers. The agreement, ratified in August, includes pay raises and promises to address complaints about delivery vans.

A Gallup poll found that Americans’ support of labor unions has grown, from 48 percent in 2010 to 67 percent this year. Yet anti-union sentiment remains strong: In the Republican presidential debate last month, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie turned around a question about UFOs to talk about education and teachers’ unions. Christie said the unions “put themselves before our kids” and called them “the biggest threat to our country — not UFOs.”

In our work at the National Conflict Resolution Center, we’ve seen lingering animosity on this topic. One company hired us to deliver communication and conflict resolution training to a group of leaders so they can better respond to divisiveness in their workplaces. But the biggest source of conflict, we learned, wasn’t pay or performance or politics: It was support for (or opposition to) union labor.

There’s a feeling that workers have the upper hand right now — after all, there aren’t enough of them. The bubbling angst is symptomatic of a larger problem. As the Gartner report noted, perceptions of pay are often divorced from actual compensation, tied instead to the way a person feels about their employer.

In organizations across America, those relationships are tenuous, if not fractured. There has been a loss of trust — a feeling among workers that they are not valued.

On Wednesday, I heard an NPR interview with SAG-AFTRA leader Fran Drescher, who said to Hollywood studio heads, “Just pivot. Start being inclusive. Start realizing that we’re not peons. We’re in this together. Honor our artistry. Exalt what we bring to the world.”

It’s a message that many corporate leaders need to hear. Until and unless they do, the unrest will continue.

Dinkin is president of the National Conflict Resolution Center, a San Diego-based group working to create solutions to challenging issues, including intolerance and incivility. To learn about NCRC’s programming, visit ncrconline.com