Aircraft assembly workers walked off the job at at Boeing factories near Seattle and elsewhere early Friday after union members voted overwhelmingly to go on strike.
Organized labor has made itself heard over the past year and the number of actions taken by unions has soared. There were 470 work stoppages (466 strikes and 4 lockouts) involving approximately 539,000 workers last year, according to Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations. The nearly 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 those work stoppages skyrocketed 141% to well over a half million workers, according to Cornell.
Unions including the UAW, the Teamsters and this week the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, say they made the sacrifices asked of them by their companies during the pandemic and rough economic economic conditions. Now, they say, it is time for pay and benefits to catch up and workers appear more willing to strike.
Here's a look at some recent company negotiations with their unions.
Late last year the United Auto Workers union overwhelmingly ratified new contracts with Ford and Stellantis, along with a similar deal with General Motors, that would raise pay across the industry and force automakers to absorb higher costs.
The agreements, which run through April 2028, ended contentious talks that began in the summer of 2022 and led to six-week-long strikes at all three automakers.
The new contract agreements were widely seen as a victory for the UAW. The companies agreed to dramatically raise pay for top-scale assembly plant workers, with increases and cost-of-living adjustments that would translate into 33% wage gains.
Top assembly plant workers were to receive immediate 11% raises and would earn roughly $42 an hour when the contracts expire in April of 2028.
Under the agreements, the automakers also ended many of the multiple tiers of wages they had used to pay different workers. They also agreed in principle to bring new electric-vehicle battery plants into the national union contract.
UPS workers that are members of the Teamsters union approved a tentative contract with the package delivery company last year. The run up to the approval was not smooth though, with contentious labor negotiations that threatened to disrupt package deliveries for millions of businesses and households nationwide.
After negotiations broke down in early July 2023, Atlanta-based UPS reached a tentative contract agreement with the Teamsters just days before an Aug. 1 deadline.
At the time the tentative agreement was struck, full- and part-time union workers were set to get $2.75 more per hour in 2023, and $7.50 more in total by the end of the five-year contract. Starting hourly pay for part-time employees also got bumped up 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 make about $170,000 annually in pay and benefits. It was not clear how much of that figure benefits accounted for.
As part of the deal, the delivery company also agreed to make Martin Luther King Jr. Day a full holiday, end forced overtime on drivers’ days off and stop using driver-facing cameras in cabs, among a host of other issues. It eliminated a two-tier wage system for drivers and tentative deals on safety issues were also reached, including equipping more trucks with air conditioning.
Earlier this month video game performers reached agreements with 80 individual games that have signed interim or tiered budget agreements with the performers’ union and accepted the artificial intelligence provisions they have been seeking.
The performers had been striking for over a month.
Members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists began striking in July after negotiations with game industry giants that began more than a year and a half ago came to a halt over AI protections.
The interim agreement secures wage improvements, protections around “exploitative uses” of artificial intelligence and safety precautions that account for the strain of physical performances, as well as vocal stress. The tiered budget agreement aims to make working with union talent more feasible for independent game developers or smaller-budget projects while also providing performers the protections under the interim agreement.
Last month thousands of hospitality union workers on the Las Vegas Strip reached a tentative deal with the Venetian and Palazzo resorts, a first for employees at the sprawling Italian-inspired complex that opened 25 years ago.
The Culinary Workers Union announced on the social platform X that the deal came together after a year of negotiations. It covers over 4,000 hotel and casino workers, from housekeepers and cocktail servers to bartenders and porters.
Bethany Khan, a union spokesperson, said the deal mirrors the major wins secured in recent contracts awarded to 40,000 hospitality workers at 18 Strip properties owned or operated by casino giants MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment and Wynn Resorts.
Those wins included a 32% pay increase over five years, housekeeping workload reductions and improved job security amid advancements in technology and artificial intelligence.
The bump in pay under those contracts will amount to an average $35 hourly wage by the end of the contracts, according to the union. Workers at these properties were making about $26 hourly with benefits before winning their latest contracts in November.
Unions representing 85,000 health care workers reached a tentative agreement with industry giant Kaiser Permanente in October 2023 following a strike over wages and staffing levels.
The deal included setting minimum hourly wages at $25 in California, where most of Kaiser’s facilities are located, and $23 in other states. Workers would also see a 21% wage increase over four years.
The lead up to the tentative agreement included a three-day strike involving 75,000 workers in multiple states.
The tentative agreement also included protective terms around subcontracting and outsourcing, as well as initiatives to invest in the current workforce and address a staffing crisis.
Hollywood’s actors voted to ratify a deal with studios in December 2023 that ended their strike after nearly four months, bringing an official finish to a labor strife that shook the entertainment industry for most of last year.
Members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists approved a three-year contract.
Control over the use of artificial intelligence was the most hard-fought issue in the long, methodical negotiations. The contract called for a 7% general pay increase with further hikes coming in the second and third years of the deal.
The agreement also included a hard-won provision that temporarily derailed talks: the creation of a fund to pay performers for future viewings of their work on streaming services, in addition to traditional residuals paid for the showing of movies or series.
In a little over two weeks, it’s likely that about 45,000 dockworkers along the U.S. East and Gulf coasts will go on strike and shut down as many as 36 ports that handle almost half of the nation’s cargo from ships entering and exiting the nation. While consumers probably won’t see much of an impact if the strike isn’t long, there could be shortages that would hurt the U.S. economy if the walkout by the International Longshoremen’s Association goes for more than a month.
FILE - United Auto Workers members strike outside of Ford's Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville, Ky. on Oct. 12, 2023. (Michael Clevenger/Courier Journal via AP, File)
FILE - Actor Sena Bryer, second from left, joins other demonstrators in a SAG-AFTRA video game actor strike picket line outside Warner Bros. Studios on Aug. 28, 2024, in Burbank, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
FILE - Teamsters and workers hold a rally in downtown Los Angeles, July 19, 2023, as a deadline neared in negotiations between the union and United Parcel Service. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Boeing Machinists Union members Steven Wilson, left, Dave Hendrickson, center,, and Mark Erickson, right, wave to passing traffic while on the picket line at the Renton assembly plant, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, in Renton, Wash. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)
Hundreds of handheld pagers exploded almost simultaneously across Lebanon and in parts of Syria on Tuesday, killing at least nine people, government and Hezbollah officials said. Officials pointed the finger at Israel in what appeared to be a sophisticated, remote attack.
The Israeli military declined to comment.
Hezbollah began striking Israel almost immediately after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that sparked the Israel-Hamas war. Since then, Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged fire daily, coming close to a full-blown war on several occasions and forcing tens of thousands on both sides of the border to evacuate their homes.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. The ministry does not differentiate between fighters and civilians in its count but says a little over half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The war has caused vast destruction and displaced about 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million.
Here's the latest:
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwanese company Gold Apollo says it authorized its brand on the pagers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria but that another company manufactured them.
Gold Apollo said Wednesday the pagers used by the Hezbollah militant group were produced and sold by a company called BAC that was authorized to use Gold Apollo’s trademark in some regions.
“Regarding the recent media reports about the AR-924 pager, we clarify that this model is produced and sold by BAC,” the Gold Apollo statement read. “We only provide brand trademark authorization and have no involvement in the design or manufacturing of this product.”
Experts believe explosive material was put into the pagers prior to their delivery and use in a sophisticated supply chain infiltration.
UNITED NATIONS — A United Nations assessment mission reached northern Gaza on Tuesday for the first time in four weeks, a U.N. spokesperson said. It waited more than five hours at an Israeli checkpoint before being allowed to head to Gaza City, said U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
He said access for aid workers remains “extremely limited.” During the first half of September, only a quarter of the nearly 50 missions led by seven different U.N. agencies trying to get to the north were allowed to cross through Israeli checkpoints along Wadi Gaza, despite coordinating with Israeli authorities, Dujarric said.
“Even when these missions could cross, they often faced impediments along the way,” Dujarric said, adding that some convoys were stopped at gunpoint, shot at, or forced to wait for hours.
BEIRUT — Hamas has issued a statement condemning Tuesday's pager explosions.
“We appreciate the struggle and sacrifices of our brothers in Hezbollah, and their insistence on continuing to support and back our Palestinian people in Gaza, and we affirm our full solidarity with the Lebanese people and our brothers in Hezbollah,” a statement from Hamas said.
Hezbollah began firing rockets over the border into Israel on Oct. 8, the day after a deadly Hamas-led attack in southern Israel triggered a massive Israeli counteroffensive and the war in Gaza. Since then, Hezbollah and Israeli forces have exchanged strikes near-daily.
The Lebanese militant group has said it is supporting its ally, Hamas, and that it will stop its attacks if a cease-fire is reached in Gaza.
BEIRUT — The pagers that exploded Tuesday in Lebanon and Syria had apparently been acquired by Hezbollah after the group’s leader ordered members in February to stop using cellphones, warning they could be tracked by Israeli intelligence.
A Hezbollah official told The Associated Press the pagers were a new brand, but declined to say how long they had been in use. The Hezbollah official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.
Experts said the pager explosions point to a sophisticated, long-planned operation, possibly carried out by infiltrating the supply chain and rigging the pagers with explosives before they were imported to Lebanon.
Associated Press reporter Bassem Mroue contributed to this report.
BAGHDAD — The Iraqi government and an Iran-backed Iraqi militia are promising to send assistance to Lebanon.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani ordered Iraqi medical and emergency service teams to be sent, his office said in a statement.
The Kataeb Hezbollah militia, one of the most powerful among Iraq’s Iranian-backed armed groups, said in a separate statement that it would “put all our capabilities in the hands of the brothers in Lebanon.”
“We are fully prepared to go with them to the end, and to send fighters, equipment, and support, whether on the technical or logistical level,” it said.
WASHINGTON — The United States says it's gathering information on the pager explosions in Lebanon and Syria.
“I can tell you that the U.S. was not involved in it,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said. "The U.S. was not aware of this incident in advance. And at this point, we’re gathering information.”
BEIRUT — The son of a member of Hezbollah’s bloc in Lebanon's parliament was among those killed Tuesday.
The sons of two other senior officials were wounded, a Hezbollah official said on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Prominent Hezbollah legislator Ali Ammar spoke to The Associated Press after his son was killed.
“This is a new Israeli aggression against Lebanon,” Ammar said. “The resistance will retaliate in a suitable way at the suitable time.”
A Hezbollah official said the wounded include the son of Hezbollah legislator Hassan Fadlallah and the son of senior security official Wafiq Safa.
Associated Press reporter Bassem Mroue contributed to this report.
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran's foreign minister has strongly condemned what he and other officials say was an Israeli attack in which hundred of pagers exploded across Lebanon and parts of Syria.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reports that Abbas Araghchi made the comments in a phone conversation with his Lebanese counterpart, Abdallah Bou Habib. The explosions occurred in the suburbs of Beirut and in other areas that are strongholds of Iran-backed Hezbollah.
IRNA reported that during the phone call, Araghchi offered condolences and expressed solidarity with the Lebanese government, nation. He also said Iran is ready to provide treatment for the injured people or their transfer to Tehran.
Israel has not commented.
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s foreign ministry has condemned what it called and “Israeli cyber attack,” in which hundreds of handheld pagers exploded across Lebanon and parts of Syria.
The ministry said in a statement that it is preparing to submit a complaint to the U.N. Security Council.
“This dangerous and deliberate Israeli escalation is accompanied by Israeli threats to expand the scope of the war against Lebanon on a large scale, and by the intransigence of Israeli’s positions calling for more bloodshed, destruction and devastation,” it said.
Israel has not commented.
BEIRUT — At least eight people were killed Tuesday after hundreds of handheld pagers exploded near simultaneously across Lebanon and in parts of Syria, government and Hezbollah officials said.
Officials pointed the finger at Israel in what appeared to be a sophisticated, remote attack. The Israeli military declined to comment.
Lebanon’s health minister, Firas Abiad, said at least eight people were killed and 2,750 wounded. Hezbollah said at least two of its members were among the dead.
Iranian state-run IRNA news agency said that the country’s ambassador, Mojtaba Amani, was superficially wounded by an exploding pager and was being treated at a hospital.
BEIRUT — Hezbollah said in a statement that at 3:30 p.m. (1230 GMT) pagers used by people working for the group’s institutions began exploding “mysteriously,” killing a young girl and two Hezbollah members and wounding several people.
The statement said Hezbollah is carrying out “a security and scientific” investigation into the simultaneous explosions.
Hezbollah called on people not to listen to rumors that are part of “psychological warfare” as Israel threatens to change the facts on the ground along its northern border.
“The resistance, at all its levels, is on high alert to defend Lebanon and its steadfast people,” the statement said.
JERUSALEM — Israel’s internal security agency says it foiled an attempt by Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group to kill a former senior Israeli security official.
The Shin Bet said in a statement on Tuesday that it had found an explosive device fitted with a camera and a mechanism that would allow it to be activated by Hezbollah from Lebanon. It said the attack was to be carried out in the coming days.
The Shin Bet did not provide evidence linking the device to Hezbollah, which has been trading fire with Israel along the Lebanese border since the outbreak of the war in Gaza.
It did not say where the device was found or identify the target of the attack, but said the official had been notified. It said the device was similar to one found in a park in Tel Aviv in September 2023 that it said was intended to target a senior Israeli official.
That device went off without causing any injuries. The Shin Bet said Hezbollah was behind both planned attacks.
There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.
In recent days Israeli officials have warned of a wider military operation to halt Hezbollah rocket attacks and allow tens of thousands of Israelis to return to their homes in the north.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinian officials say Israel has struck a number of homes in the central Gaza Strip, killing at least four people, including a child. The Civil Defense first responders say more people are trapped under the rubble and the toll is likely to rise after the strikes early Tuesday.
Another strike late Monday in Gaza City killed a man, his wife and child, according to the Civil Defense.
Israel says it only targets militants and tries to avoid harming civilians. It accuses Hamas and other armed groups of endangering civilians by operating in densely populated areas.
The Civil Defense said that their rescue crews came under Israeli fire as they arrived in the area, injuring one.
The Israeli military said it was targeting militants preparing to fire at troops and was reviewing “reports regarding harm to uninvolved civilians.” A military official speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with military regulations said that paramedics from agencies such as the U.N. sometimes have to coordinate with the military before rushing in to evacuate the wounded.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says over 41,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, which was ignited by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into Israel. It does not differentiate between civilians and combatants but says a little over half of those killed were women and children.
The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in the Oct. 7 attacks and took another 250 hostage. They are still holding around 100 captives, a third of whom are believed to be dead, after most of the rest were released during a cease-fire in November.
JERUSALEM — Returning residents evacuated from Israel’s north due to cross-border fighting with Hezbollah is now an official war goal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Tuesday.
Israeli officials have long said they aim to return the tens of thousands of displaced Israelis to their homes, so it was not immediately clear how the announcement would impact the conduct of the war. But it was a strong indication Israel is prepared to take tougher military action to realize that goal.
Visiting White House envoy Amos Hochstein met with Netanyahu and other top officials Monday to try to soothe tensions and avoid the opening of a new front between Israel and Lebanon.
Netanyahu told the envoy that Israel will do “whatever is necessary” to bring home the residents.
In a brief statement after an overnight Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu’s office said Israel will continue to work toward the goal — the latest sign that patience is running out.
Hezbollah began striking Israel almost immediately after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that sparked the Israel-Hamas war. Since then, Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged fire daily, coming close to a full-blown war on several occasions and forcing tens of thousands on both sides of the border to evacuate their homes.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has said the focal point of military action is moving from Gaza to Israel’s northern front. In talks with Hochstein on Monday, both he and Netanyahu warned that time was running out for a diplomatic solution and heavier military activity could be inevitable.
UNITED NATIONS — The United States ambassador to the United Nations accused Israel’s military of striking schools, humanitarian workers and civilians in Gaza in a sign of growing American frustration with its close ally as the war approaches its first anniversary.
Israel has repeatedly said it targets Hamas militants, who often hide with civilians and use them as human shields, in retaliation for the Oct. 7 attacks in southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and launched the war in Gaza.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield was unusually outspoken against the Israeli military at a U.N. Security Council meeting Monday, saying many of the strikes in recent weeks that injured or killed U.N. personnel and humanitarian workers were preventable.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an independent investigation.
Thomas-Greenfield told council members that the U.S. will keep raising the need for Israel to facilitate humanitarian operations in the Palestinian territory and protect humanitarian workers and facilities. She also reiterated outrage at the death of Turkish American activist Aysenur Eygi, who was shot and killed Sept. 6 during a protest in the West Bank. Israeli Defense Forces said it likely killed Eygi by mistake, and the government began a criminal investigation.
Palestinians in Lebanon hold placards during a protest in front of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
People gather outside the American University hospital after the arrival of several people who were wounded by exploding handheld pagers, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Civil Defense first-responders carry a man who was wounded after his handheld pager exploded, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024.(AP Photo)
FILE - Smoke rises after an Israeli shelling on an area in Lebanon, seen from the Israel-annexed Golan Heights, next to the Israeli-Lebanese border, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, FIle)
Mehmet, left. the father of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26 year-old Turkish-American activist killed by the Israeli military, attends prayers during his daughter's funeral outside the central mosque of Didim, Turkey, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024,(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
A Palestinian woman rides her donkey near the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Palestinians in Lebanon wave their national flags during a protest in front of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
An Israeli firefighter works to extinguish a fire burning in an area, following an attack from Lebanon, near the Kibbutz Snir, northern Israel, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
