By Gary S. Vasilash
A country’s GDP—gross domestic product—is a measure of the value of goods and services produced for sale. A higher GDP is generally a reflection of comparatively higher economic health for a given country compared with others.
According to the United Nations, the top 10 countries measured on GDP per capita are:
- Luxemburg
- Ireland
- Norway
- Switzerland
- United States
- Demark
- Netherlands
- Sweden
- San Marino
- Belgium
What do all of these countries have in common?
They are not generally associated with wide-spread labor actions (a.k.a., massive strikes).
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has released information about union membership rage in the U.S.: 10%, or 14.4 million workers. That 10% is flat compared with 2022.
The BLS started tracking these numbers in 1983. Back then there were 17.7 million union workers. That represented 20.1% of the workforce.
And while many people (likely you, as you are reading something about the auto industry) might think that the auto industry is where there is the greatest number of represented workers, turns out that in the private sector the number-one industry for union workers is utilities, at 19.9%. Then the BLS buckets transportation and warehousing at 15.9%, followed by educational services (12.9%) and motion picture and sound recording (12.9%).
If people are interested in money first and foremost, then union membership is certainly a positive, as the median weekly earnings for a union worker in 2023 was $1,263 compared with $1,090 for a non-union worker.
Which brings us back to the list.
On Monday, speaking at the UAW national political conference in Washington, DC, UAW president Sean Fain said that he wants an organized strike, a general strike, a mass strike across the board, to occur on May 1, 2028.
“We want everybody walking out just like they do in other countries.”
If GDP is important, then one wonders about the wisdom of emulating the labor practices or activities of other countries where it isn’t particularly high.
People deserve good pay, benefits and working conditions. But somehow a scheduled across-the-board strike doesn’t seem to articulate the needs of a utility worker, which are probably different than those of a barista, which are coincidental at most with a university teaching assistant, which are undoubtedly not the same as someone working the line in a Chevy plant.
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