What the data reveal about U.S. labor unrest

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.5K Ratings

🗓️ 28 February 2024

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

From "Hot Labor Summer" to "Striketober," 2023 was another big year for workers joining picket lines. Today on the show, we'll dig into two recent reports that shed light on the state of labor unrest in the U.S.. We'll look at what industries are driving this trend, how workers are feeling about their jobs and what that says about the American labor movement.

Related episodes:
Why residuals are taking center stage in actors' strike (Apple / Spotify)
The never-ending strike (Apple / Spotify)
The strike that changed U.S. labor

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	NPR.
0:03.0	They make automobiles and lattes. They teach kids and care for the sick. They write your favorite TV shows and maybe act in them too. We're talking about the hundreds of thousands of workers who went on strike last year.
0:26.2	Some nicknames have been thrown around to describe what seems like this growing surge in the
0:30.5	labor movement.
0:31.5	We got Strike Tober, Hot Labor summer. Yeah, I don't know if that
0:35.7	one really caught on mainstream. Doesn't have quite the zing of Strike Tober. What about the winter of our labor
0:42.3	discontent?
0:43.3	The strike solstice?
0:45.3	Maybe this needs some more work shopping.
0:48.2	These names are, you know, maybe nice for headlines, but what do the numbers actually say about what
0:55.7	happened with labor last year?
0:59.5	This is the indicator for Planet Money.
1:00.8	I'm Adrian Ma.
1:02.0	And I'm Waylon Wong.
1:03.1	Newly released reports show that 2023 was the most active year for labor strikes in over two decades.
1:09.4	That's right.
1:10.4	So today on the show, we'll dig into those numbers to try to understand what industries are driving this trend, how workers are feeling about it, and what it tells us about the American labor movement. Movement.
1:23.0	Discover a social media empire on a mission to reconstruct America using guns and Facebook.
1:30.0	Welcome to No Compromise.
1:32.0	Podcast winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for audio reporting.
1:37.0	Go behind the hot button issues in the national debate
1:40.0	and listen to the no compromise podcast from NPR.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.