How the UAW strike benefits all workers (with Kate Bahn)

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Civic Ventures

Business, Government, News, Politics

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 19 December 2023

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Business reporting on labor unions tends to focus on speculation about how much striking workers might hurt the economy. But the reality is that successful strikes have a long-term positive impact on economic growth because they raise wages for all workers. Economist and researcher Kate Bahn, Director of Research from WorkRise argues that strikes, especially historic strikes such as the recent UAW strike, benefit both unionized and non-union workers, and have much broader ripple effects across the whole economy because they increase worker power and competition for workers across various sectors and industries. Kate Bahn is an economist and researcher, currently serving as the Director of Research for WorkRise, a research-to-action network hosted by the Urban Institute. Bahn's expertise lies in labor markets, gender economics, and income inequality. She has conducted extensive research on topics such as the gender wage gap, paid family leave, and the impact of automation on employment. Bahn's work combines rigorous analysis with a commitment to addressing the needs and challenges faced by marginalized communities. Twitter: @LipstickEcon How the UAW strike might benefit all workers: https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/15/opinions/union-member-negotiations-uaw-pay-bahn/index.html Labor unions are good for workers, and here’s why they also make good business sense: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/labor-unions-are-good-for-workers-and-heres-why-they-also-make-good-business-sense-a39f3697 Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Twitter: @PitchforkEcon Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Nick’s twitter: @NickHanauer

Transcript

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0:00.0	Profits and particularly shareholder profits are really wasteful economic activity and so clawing that back is you know not just to stick it to them
0:09.0	But that's actually better for the whole economy and you know the story of the economy through the
0:13.6	neoliberal era has been the shift from wages to profits. Employers don't pay you
0:18.9	what you're worth, they pay you what you can negotiate and we saw a great example of that recently in the American economy.
0:26.1	Yes we did the UAW strike. From the home offices of Civic Ventures in downtown Seattle, this is Pitch Fork Economics,
0:38.0	with Nick Hanauer, the best place to get the truth about who gets what and why.
0:45.0	I'm Nick Hanauer, founder of Civic Ventures.
0:51.0	I'm David Goldstein, Senior Fellow at Civic Ventures.
0:57.0	One of the things you like to say, Nick, is employers don't pay you what you're worth, they pay you what you can negotiate.
1:11.0	And we saw a great example of that recently in the American economy.
1:15.0	Yes we did. The UAW strike was probably the best example of that that we've seen, I guess, in a really long time.
1:22.0	Yeah, big, big wins for autoworkers recently.
1:27.0	And it's funny because when it started,
1:30.0	there was a lot of criticism.
1:32.0	Oh, they're asking for too much they're reaching too far but yeah
1:38.3	they really won most of their main objectives. That's right, yeah, and they deserve to because profits at the auto companies have gone sky high as wages have either gone down or flattened and I think it's really exciting what they
1:54.6	accomplished and probably will have a you know a positive effect on other sectors and other
2:01.2	workers.
2:02.2	And a great example to workers in other sectors who are either looking to organize or who are already unionized and looking to strike.
2:12.0	Yeah. unionized and looking to strike, that there are gains to be out there and concessions to be reversed
2:19.2	and opportunities to be won.
2:22.0	Absolutely.
	...

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