labor 2023: A Year-in-Review

2023 was an explosive year for worker organizing. A decades-in-the-making reform victory at the UAW paved the way for historic contract victories at the Big Three automakers. LA teachers and service workers united around shared community demands.

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Illustration of workers on leaning out of train doors with raised fists.
illustration by Jovana Mugosa

A recap of 2023 labor highlights:

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RAILROADS IN THE SPOTLIGHT 

The Case for Nationalizing the Railroads
By Kari Lydersen

The near-railroad strike in Dec 2022 and the disastrous Norfolk Southern derailment of Feb 2023 brought public attention to the disastrous safety and working conditions caused by a profit-driven railroad monopoly. Kari Lydersen covered a union-led movement to put the railroads under public control.

THE WARRIOR MET COAL STRIKE COMES TO AN END 

There Is Power in a Pantry
By Kim Kelly

Meet the women who nourished the longest strike in Alabama’s history.

UNION BUSTING DOESN'T PAY 

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Bernie Sanders Is Putting Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz In the Hot Seat Over Union Busting
By Jeff Schuhrke

Schultz faced questioning in front of a congressional committee headed by Bernie Sanders—the latest in a line of billionaire CEOs to be taken to task for anti-labor behavior.

A UNION REFORM BOMBSHELL 

IT'S OFFICIAL: Reformer Shawn Fain Wins the UAW Presidency, Talks Plans with Steven Greenhouse in Exclusive Interview
By Steven Greenhouse

“We need to run contract campaigns where we engage the membership and go after their demands. We haven’t done this in my lifetime.”

LA TEACHERS AND SERVICE WORKERS BARGAIN FOR THE COMMON GOOD 

“If They Strike, We Won’t Cross the Picket Line”: LA Teachers And Service Workers Unite
By Kari Lydersen

When the school district’s service workers announced plans to begin a three-day strike, the teachers union had their back.

STARBUCKS WORKERS CALL THE COMPANY'S BLUFF 

Starbucks Union Workers Have a New Strategy to Win a First Contract
By Saurav Sarkar

After over a year of delays, workers are done waiting on Starbucks to bargain in good faith—so they’re calling the company’s bluff by holding regional in-person bargaining meetings.

REPUBLICANS ROLL BACK CHILD LABOR LAWS 

Rolling Back a Century of Progress, Republicans Are Reviving Child Labor
By Sonali Kolhatkar

Rather than pay workers their due, Republicans have opted instead to create a larger labor pool—by loosening child labor law restrictions.

TEAMSTERS AND SAG-AFTRA GET CROSS-SECTOR SOLIDARITY

Cross-Union Solidarity Is Fueling the Historic Summer Strike Wave
By Jeff Schuhrke

From Hollywood to UPS, the U.S. labor movement is uniting to support striking workers and win contract demands across industries.

STRIKES GET THE GOODS 

Workers at a Chicago Safety-Net Hospital Went on Strike. They Just Won Across-the-Board Raises.
By Jeff Schuhrke

At Loretto hospital, around 200 hospital workers went on strike for over a week demanding better pay. Their new contract includes an average raise of 14.5% over three years.

CORPORATE LOBBYISTS PUT WORKERS AT RISK 

Workers Are Dying From the Heat: Why Is It so Hard to Protect Them?
By Maurizio Guerrero

No federal heat standard exists and lobbyists, corporate interests and those with fiercely anti-regulatory agendas have been vocal and active in keeping it that way.

BARGAINING FOR THE ELECTRIC VEHICLE FUTURE 

Will the Clean Energy Auto Economy Be Built on Factory Floors Riddled With Toxic Chemicals and Safety Hazards?
By Luis Feliz Leon

Workers at an Ultium Cells plant in Ohio are fighting for fair wages and safety on the job. What happens there could help set the tone for similar joint-venture plants across the country. x

DISPATCHES FROM THE UAW PICKET LINE 

Wisconsin Autoworkers Are Bundling Firewood for a Winter Picket Line
By Isabela Escalona

“We had to draw the line in the sand somewhere.”

WORKER SOLIDARITY TRANSCENDS BORDERS 

“This Fight Is Global”: Workers Around the World Are Standing With Striking U.S. Autoworkers
By Jeff Schuhrke

From Brazil and Mexico to South Africa and Malaysia, international labor solidarity is aiding the UAW’s fight to reverse the global race to the bottom.

THE UAW WINS BIG. WHO'S NEXT? 

The UAW Just Challenged the Entire Labor Movement to Get More Ambitious
By Hamilton Nolan

The United Auto Workers announced a new campaign to organize 150,000 new members at non-union shops.

A CYNICAL UNION-BUSTING CAMPAIGN 

Starbucks Is Exploiting the Violence in Gaza and Israel to Attack Its Union
By Lynne Fox

The president of Workers United writes that Starbucks is endangering its own employees and appears to even endorse a boycott of its own stores. “I am afraid,” said one worker. “My mom doesn’t want me to go to work.”

WORKERS STAND WITH PALESTINE 

The U.S. Labor Voices Opposing Military Aid to Israel
By Jeff Schuhrke and Sarah Lazare

“It is important for unions to ask themselves, for all of us to ask ourselves in any space we’re in, what did we do when Gaza was being decimated to ashes?