Thread by @latimes

After decades of stagnating wages and diminishing pension and healthcare benefits — followed by a grueling 19 months working long hours during the COVID-19 pandemic — many American workers are fed up.

A small but growing number are organizing. latimes.com/world-nation/s…

Earlier this month, John Deere workers at 14 assembly plants joined more than 2,000 hospital employees striking in New York, along with 1,400 Kellogg workers in four states and 1,100 coal miners in Alabama.

📸: Armand Aviram latimes.com/world-nation/s…

But for all the #Striketober hype on social media, the number of U.S. workers channeling disgruntlement into collective action is relatively tiny: 24,000 workers have gone on strike in October. latimes.com/world-nation/s…

With most of the action individual rather than collective, America is far from witnessing a rerun of the 1940s, when more than 5 million workers went on strike in the months after the end of World War II to fight for better wages and working hours. latimes.com/world-nation/s…

In 2021’s tighter labor market, many workers have more bargaining power than they have had for years, but they also face significant hurdles as they try to claw back past concessions and force companies to raise wages and improve working conditions. latimes.com/world-nation/s…

“We’ve seen four decades of rising inequality and wage stagnation, with working people not getting their fair share of economic growth,” one expert told @jennyjarvie and @margotroosevelt.

“That has laid the stage for this.” latimes.com/world-nation/s…