ARLINGTON, Texas — After a six-week strike against auto manufacturers, the workers' union has now secured tentative labor agreements with Ford, Stellantis, and GM.
Most employees will get a 25% wage hike spread across four years. With an included cost-of-living adjustment, top earners are estimated to make more than $42 per hour by 2028.
The United Auto Workers is the latest union to secure better pay and benefits after striking this year. U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Dallas) says labor is having a moment.
"People, overall, are having a moment," she said. "Unions stand for the idea of people power... People are truly recognizing that, when you come together, you really can effectuate change."
The UAW had never before picketed against all three American auto manufacturers simultaneously. To execute their plan, UAW leadership targeted various plants and distribution facilities with strikes instead of calling all unionized employees to walk out together.
The risky strategy might've emboldened workers in other industries, UT Arlington Assistant Professor of Economics Ashish Sedai said.
"We already saw this with Kaiser Permanente's workers," Sedai said. "In this age of social media and open knowledge, these kinds of strikes are more likely in the future."
Some pundits had already deemed 2023's warmer months as the "Summer of Strikes." Unionized health care professionals, writers and baristas all secured some victories in high-profile negotiations with their employers.
Inflation and concerns about artificial intelligence prompted more union activity, said David Allen, the Luther Henderson chair in management and leadership at TCU's Neeley School of Business. Americans' perception of work has also changed, post-pandemic, he said.
"People are seeing that it looks like, in some cases, some of these big employers are doing really well and making good profits," Allen said. "The labor markets have been pretty good an unemployment is relatively low, so people are feeling like they have a little leverage."
"It is possible there could be some sustained growth in union activity because of changes in the economy and because unions are actively trying to target a broader swath of the economy, like service workers, for example," he continued.
Leverage could shift back toward employers when the economy cycles into a rut, Allen added. Current labor laws will make also it harder for unions to regain the power they had in the 1950s or 1960s, he said.
A Bureau of Labor Statistics report indicates union membership grew from 2021 to 2022 by about 273,000 workers. But the percentage of American employees who are union members dropped in the same time frame because the overall employment base has grown disproportionately larger.
Wells Fargo estimates the strike at Arlington's GM plant cost the company about $130 million, despite lasting about a week.
The deal's impact on consumers remains unclear.
"Are they now going to pass that on to consumers and further exacerbate an already exhausted environment?" Crockett asked.
The Democrat added that policymakers should continue to protect collective bargaining rights so labor can continue building momentum.
"This is about human dignity and doing what's right," she said.