Workers, Strikes and Union: The Financial Impact on Society

Today, the crew discussed the recent increase in worker strikes, their respective financial impacts, and the potential impacts on our entire society. The picket line, work freeze, and the cost of goods are taking their toll. Something has to give.

Will society break or will the workers?

Table of Contents

Why do Workers Strike?

Workers strike over a wide array of issues, but the most common demands include higher wages, safer working conditions, and better benefits. In response to economic conditions such as higher sustained inflation or radical modernization, when households are squeezed, people take to the street. the ability to protest is a fundamental part of the right to organize and collectively bargain.

Unfortunately, this form of collective dealing was been in decline since the 1980s. As employers lost their market power in the late 1970s and early 1980s, union wage dominance shrank and fragmented, narrowed down into the newly detailed segments into which competition was slicing markets. One union segment had to compete with another and with nonunion segments here and abroad.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the union membership rate was 10.1 percent in 2022, down from 10.3 percent in 2021. The 2022 unionization rate (10.1 percent) is the lowest on record. In 1983, the first year for which comparable data were available, the union membership rate was 20.1 percent.

A protest is merely the voice for the voiceless. How does it end?

For example, a compromise was reached where SAG dropped demands for residuals from past films in exchange for a donation to their pension fund, along with a formula for payment when future films aired on TV.

However, these wins will be all but short-lived. The real solution is a shift from massive consumerism. Without it, American households will continue to burn through nearly 75% of their gross salaries while saving less. The less people save, the more it will cost them in their time and labor in the long run.

One massive misstep was not investing in the market. In 2023, 61 percent of adults invested. This figure is still below the levels before the Great Recession when it peaked in 2007 at 65 percent. The average American has $65,000 in retirement savings, according to the Federal Reserve. By retirement age, the average is estimated to be $255,200.

At an investment rate of less than 7 percent; it’s not enough.

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Alainta Alcin – Blogger, Travel and Money Enthusiast @alainta_alcin
Lawrence Delva-Gonzalez, Financial Foodie and Blogger @theneighborhoodfinanceguy
Lovely Merdelus – Entrepreneur and Small Business Growth Specialist @lovelymerdelus