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From Amazon to Starbucks, the power of worker unions and collective bargaining is resurgent in the United States.
For example, after 1,400 workers at the company's cereal mills went on strike for over three months in late 2021, several hundred workers at a Kellogg's plant that makes Cheez-Its secured a new contract that provides more than 15% salary increases over three years.
Specially, the employees will receive 6% hikes in the first year of their new contract, 5% raises the following year, and 4.5% raises plus a $500 bonus in the third year.
Workers will also benefit from increased health and pension benefits while paying no more for their health insurance.
In addition, new recruits will be promoted to higher pay levels more swiftly.
The Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union indicates this is the highest wage and benefit increases in its history, and that the contract demonstrates the power of a union voice and collective bargaining.
Currently, companies in the United States are struggling to fill more than 11 million job openings across the country, roughly two openings for every one unemployed person.
At the same time, workers are demanding more and more after keeping businesses running during the coronavirus outbreak.
In addition to the Kellogg's strike, workers also went on strike last year at a Frito-Lay facility in Topeka, Kansas, and at five Nabisco factories around the country.
The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers International Union, which represents Kellogg's cereal plant workers, said walkouts such as these, along with others across the sector in the last year, help other unions obtain major gains for other firms' workers.
Last year, unions in other industries, including one that represents over 10,000 John Deere employees, went on strike. After being on strike for a month, John Deere employees earned a 10% raise and improved benefits.
More than a half-dozen Starbucks employees have voted to unionize, and unions are attempting to organize around 140 additional outlets across the country.
Amazon is also attempting to avoid unionization at two of its warehouses in New York and Alabama, where ballots are now being counted.
Workers in the meatpacking industry also have been getting big raises when their contracts come up for renewal at factories all around the country.
According to experts, chronic labor shortages have given unions greater bargaining power than they've had in decades during contract negotiations.
