With the Delta variant surge adding a new level of complexity to the pandemic, many have been left feeling the effects as numerous people are beginning to strike.
To discuss the state of the economy, economist Dr. Jack Rasmus spoke with KDKA's Chris Moore about what he has seen.
Rasmus recently wrote about what he is calling "The Great Strike of 2021." While most strikes include unionized workers who are at the end of their contracts, he shared that this time, it's different.
"It's the ununionized, the unorganized, the low paid mostly," Rasmus said.
Rasmus shared that the low paid are not just those in leisure and hospitality work, low paid workers are all over, and he feels that their strike is justified.
"All the industries are pretty much contributing to this non-union worker walkout. It's not just leisure and hospitality," he said.
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Currently, Rasmus says there are around 5 million workers who are choosing not to return to work.
The last time a strike this significant was seen was in 1970, he said. During that strike, the workers achieved a 25% wage increase — which was rolled back by Former President Nixon — nothing compared to what workers are asking for today.
Companies that have experienced strikes within their workforce include Kelloggs and John Deere, while nurses have also been striking across the country. While wages play a part in some strikes, vaccine mandates and the pandemic play their own part in stalling the return to work.
"[This] is typical when you start coming out of a recession," Rasmus said. "That's when labor militancy grows, but this thing about the 5 million unorganized not going back to work leading the great strike wave of 2021, as I call it, is kind of a new phenomenon.
"We've never had it led by nonunion workers, but that's understandable because the unions have been largely destroyed in the private sector."
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Rasmus said that because a lot of manufacturing companies typically hire temps, which they can pay a lower wage and not provide benefits, they are able to remain profitable. However, now those workers want more than what they have got in the past.
For companies like John Deere, Rasmus said they have a two-tier workforce with one tier getting paid more than the other. For one tier, they want to keep wages low, and for the other, they don't want to approve pensions.
"You know the CEO of John Deere gave himself a 100% raise, and the company is making I think they made several billion dollars in profit in the last quarter," he said. "They're raking in the dough and paying themselves, senior management, but they want to keep what I call the indentureship workforce indentured here going forward."
Rasmus shared that most of those rebelling against these companies are younger generations who don't want to be treated as "second-class citizens." For what they are asking for, Rasmus said that it's not "a hell of a lot."
