Airplane assembly workers at Boeing factories near Seattle and elsewhere vote end seven-week strike overnight.

Leaders of the International Machinists and Aeronautical Workers Union district in Seattle said 59% of voting members agreed to approve the company’s fourth formal proposal, and a third is up for a vote.

Organized labor has begun to make its voice heard in the last few years, and the number of actions taken by unions has increased rapidly. According to Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, there were 470 work stoppages (466 strikes and four lockouts) involving approximately 539,000 workers last year. Approximately 500 work stoppages resulted in approximately 24,874,522 strike days.

While the number of work stoppages increased by only 9% between 2022 and 2023, the number of workers involved in these work stoppages increased by 141% to well over half a million, according to Cornell.

Unions, including the UAW, Teamsters and most recently the International Machinists and Aerospace Workers Association, say they are making the sacrifices their companies have asked of them for different economic sectors during the pandemic and previous times of hardship. However, workers have recently stood firm against the demands, saying that it is time for companies that consistently make billions of dollars in profits every year to catch up and pay their debts to workers.

Here’s a look at some of the recent divides between corporate America and workers.

Automakers and the UAW

late last year United Auto Workers The union overwhelmingly approved new contracts with Ford and Stellantis, as well as a similar deal with General Motors that would raise wages across the industry and force automakers to absorb higher costs.

The deals, which run until April 2028, put an end to contentious talks that began in the summer of 2022 and led to six-week strikes at all three automakers.

The new contract agreements were widely seen as a victory for the UAW. The companies agreed to significantly increase wages for upper-scale assembly plant workers, with increases that would translate into a 33% wage increase and cost-of-living adjustments.

Upper-level assembly plant workers would receive immediate 11% raises and earn about $42 an hour when their contracts expire in April 2028.

Under the agreements, automakers also ended most of the multiple wage tiers they used to pay different workers. They also agreed in principle to include new electric vehicle battery factories in the national union agreement.

UPS and Carriers

UPS employees who are members Transporters The union approved a temporary contract with the parcel delivery company last year. The process leading to approval was acrimonious and labor negotiations Threatened to disrupt package deliveries to millions of people businesses and households across the country.

After negotiations collapsed in early July 2023, Atlanta-based UPS reached a contract agreement with the Teamsters just days before the Aug. 1 deadline.

At the time the agreement was signed, full- and part-time unionized workers were scheduled to receive $2.75 more per hour in 2023, for a total of $7.50 more at the end of the five-year contract. The starting hourly wage for part-timers also increased to $21, but some workers said that fell short of their expectations.

UPS said at the time that by the end of the new contract, the average UPS full-time driver would earn about $170,000 a year in wages and benefits. It was unclear how much of that figure was due to benefits.

As part of the deal, the delivery company will honor Martin Luther King Jr., among many other things. He also agreed to make the day a full holiday, end mandatory overtime for drivers on their days off, and stop using driver-facing cameras in taxis. The two-tier pay system for drivers was abolished and agreements were also reached on safety issues, including equipping more trucks with air conditioning.

Video Games and SAG-AFTRA

in september video game artists has reached agreements with 80 individual titles signing temporary or staggered budget agreements with the artists’ union and agreeing to the AI ​​provisions they were seeking.

Artists have been on strike for more than a month.

Screen Actors Guild Members-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists Started strike in July Talks with gaming industry giants that began more than a year and a half ago have come to a halt over AI protections.

Interim deal secures pay improvements and protections “Exploitative uses” of artificial intelligence and safety measures that take into account vocal stress as well as the stress of physical performance. The staggered budget agreement aims to make it more affordable for independent game developers or smaller-budget projects to work with unionized talent, while also providing protection for players under the interim agreement.

Las Vegas Resort and Culinary Workers Union

Thousands of hotel union workers on the Las Vegas Strip have reached a tentative agreement with the government. Venice and Palazzo resorts August marked a first for employees of the sprawling, Italian-inspired complex that opened 25 years ago.

Kitchen Workers Union announced It was announced on the social platform X that the agreement took place after a year of negotiations. It covers more than 4,000 hotel and casino workers, from cleaners to cocktail servers, from bartenders to porters.

Union spokeswoman Bethany Khan said the agreement reflected the major gains that had been made. latest contracts Award given to 40,000 hospitality workers at 18 Strip properties owned or operated by casino giants MGM Resorts International, Caesar Fun And Wynn Resorts.

These gains include a 32% wage increase in five years, reducing the cleaning workload and improving job security. advances in technology and artificial intelligence.

According to the union, pay increases under these contracts will reach an average hourly wage of $35 by the end of the contracts. Workers at those properties were making about $26 an hour with benefits before they earned their last contract in November.

Kaiser Permanente and Healthcare Workers Unions

Unions representing 85,000 healthcare workers reached a tentative agreement with industrial giant Kaiser Permanente in October 2023 following a strike over wages and staffing levels.

The agreement included setting minimum hourly wages at $25 in California, where most of Kaiser’s facilities are located, and $23 in other states. Workers will also see a 21% wage increase over four years.

The path to the interim agreement included: three day strike It involves 75,000 workers across multiple states.

The interim agreement also included protective terms on subcontracting and outsourcing, as well as initiatives to invest in the existing workforce and address the staffing crisis.

Hollywood Studios and SAG-AFTRA

Hollywood actors He voted to approve a deal with the studios in December 2023. they ended their strike Nearly four months later, there has been an official end to the labor strife that rocked the entertainment industry for much of last year.

members Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists approved a three-year contract.

Control over usage artificial intelligence was the most difficult issue in long, methodical negotiations. The contract called for overall wage increases of 7%, with further increases in the second and third years of the agreement.

The deal also included a hard-won provision that temporarily derailed talks: creating a fund to pay artists for future viewing of their work on streaming services; traditional leftovers The fee paid for the screening of a movie or TV series.

US ports and the International Longshoremen’s Association

Approximately 45,000 longshoremen at ports on the East and Gulf coasts I went back to work in October After their unions agreed to suspend a strike that could ultimately lead to shortage and high prices if it continued.

A strike would force the closure of as many as 36 ports, which carry nearly half of the country’s cargo from ships entering and leaving the country. Such a strike would lead to shortages that would ultimately harm the U.S. economy if the International Longshoremen’s Association strike lasted more than a month.

But the dispute is not over. The Longshoremen suspended their strike three days later, but this would only last until January 15, allowing more time to negotiate a new contract. The union and the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents ports and shipping companies, said in a joint statement that they had reached a tentative agreement on wages.

The talks now turn to: automation of portsUnions say this will lead to fewer jobs and other problems.