The Workers Strike Back: How the Unexpected Behaviour of Labour During the Pandemic is a Grasp at a New Normal

As it continues to grow apparent that there may never be a return to the “normal” that existed before the COVID-19 pandemic, workers are concurrently realizing that they can be active participants in shaping the “new normal”. Acting either individually or collectively, people are making choices to not return to their jobs, to take strike and bargaining actions, and to withhold their labour, much to the behest of numerous prominent business owners and corporate interest groups now facing labour shortages and increased expenditures. It is vital to attempt an understanding of the context and motivations underlying the public behaviour at play - dismissing that necessity would simply not be honest.

If one is to tout the intrinsic wisdom of the labour market, it should be remembered that the market accounts for the actions of both supply and demand. That is to say that the supply of labour (i.e. workers willing to work at a given wage rate) is at least equally legitimate in influencing the market. However if the supply of labour has no realistic mechanism with which it can do that, the concept loses its effectiveness. In theory, workers are able to place upward pressure on the wages, benefits, and conditions offered by potential employers based on their willingness to work at a certain wage rate. In practice, workers as a whole rarely possess such potent agency. It is arguably only current conditions that have now provided supply with a mechanism, much to the alarm of those benefiting from the slumbering status quo.

Many business owners have cited government measures being provided to workers in the context of COVID-19, such as the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and its successor the Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB) as a driving factor behind the labour shortage. The idea being that workers have the income to sit at home and thus have no incentive to return to a job with a possibly lower wage. While some have thrown around the blinkered characterizations of “laziness”, it ignores the interesting way in which return-to-work somewhat places the cards on workers’ tables. After all, a job providing a wage lower than government benefits is not a shining reflection on that job and hardly makes such a job desirable.

In just over a decade, millennials have faced 2 massive recessions during their foundational youth, impacting wages and career paths, affordability and inequality, and access to housing plausibly available to most. For centuries, the concept of collective bargaining for a price floor for labour (i.e. a minimum wage) was intended to support workers by guaranteeing a living wage, such that said workers could provide for all of their basic needs. However, minimum wages - or wages in general - have not kept up with inflation or productivity growth. The Centre for Economic Policy Research identified that this stagnation in the United States has been the case for over five decades - otherwise, it would be over $24 per hour today as opposed to $7.25. Furthermore, in 2018 the Pew Research Center found - using United States Bureau of Labor Statistics data - that real purchasing power was about the same as it was in the 1970s (the $4.03 average hourly wage of January 1973 would have the same purchasing power as $23.68 in 2018). Meanwhile, using CPI to measure inflation in lockstep with GDP finds that earners are “being paid a fraction of what they would have, had inequality held constant.”

While it would be senseless to argue that the minimum wage can be tripled overnight, the fact that addressing issues of stagnation in the face of resign inequality and unaffordability would require major institutional and systemic change is hardly a comforting one. The aforementioned statistics largely coincide with the supply-side consensus implemented internationally by such world leaders as Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Perhaps workers are not exclaiming “death to neoliberalism!” from the rooftops in the millions, but it should not come as a surprise that many are tired of arguments of accepting the status quo lest they be accused of laziness nor should it come as a surprise that workers are trying to “fight back” using the mechanisms with which they can.

One identifiable trend is that of people “withholding their labour” by choosing to quit their jobs or to not take up undesirable jobs. By not guaranteeing the magnitude of supply of labour, government benefits are being used as a kind of leverage to place upward pressure on wages. Indeed, the lower the supply, the higher the wages. For many employees (a record 4.3 million Americans left their jobs in August 2021), the pandemic has put into question what they value in life and what they expect for themselves, and are thus resigning in search for jobs with better pay, benefits, location, and security.

Others have been demanding for better, through strike action and collective bargaining via labour organizations. In July of 2021, hundreds of Frito-Lay employees in Topeka, Kansas striked for nearly three weeks over forced overtime and long working hours that had left them unable to see family members. It had driven many to exhaustion, and in some cases, suicide. In October, over 10 000 John Deere union employees in the Midwest began a strike that called for better wages and dignifying conditions. IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees), whose membership consists of most individuals who work behind-the-scenes in the performing arts, held negotiations and authorized strike action over issues of unsafe hours and conditions that have long characterized the industry. While that strike was tentatively averted in October due to a new deal, the issues to which the organization spoke were further highlighted by the fatal shooting on the set of Rust later that month. This came just hours after union workers had been hastily replaced by non-union workers because they walked off in protest of working conditions - including gun safety. Kellogg’s met with great backlash over their attempts to replace workers striking over attempts to seriously reduce wages and benefits, including a large social media campaign to overwhelm the company’s website with spam applications and condemnation from President Biden. The strike ended with approval of a collective bargaining agreement on December 21.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has identified that labour shortages are indeed placing upward pressure on wages, while the workers at Frito-Lay and John Deere were also able to ratify contracts: by promising an end to issues like “suicide shifts” in the former case, and offering immediate raises in the latter case. This indicates that although workers are obtaining positive consequences after finding leverage, concerns of negative consequences pertaining to ongoing labour shortages continue. After all, better pay and conditions for workers generally hurt the bottom line of companies. In fact, the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses recently criticized the Government of British Columbia’s intent to guarantee paid sick days, and worries that such efforts may backfire continue to persist.

Some lose sight that “the economy” has little importance in the abstract but rather its importance lies in how it is relevant to people. It is unwise to only view the health of the economy from the perspective of owners of businesses and capital. Since if the economy is failing the people, it is an indication that the status quo requires some amendment. Since the physical separation of work and home was eliminated for millions, it is totally clear that the pandemic has changed how people think about their work and its role in their life: many now take steps to reach a desirable shape and role for work in their finite lives. What is totally unclear is what the future will hold, but it should not be forgotten that it is not written in stone.