From Hollywood writers to delivery drivers, workers are fed up with the gradual devaluation of their jobs

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At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Americans were isolated due to lockdowns, streaming TV shows and movies provided an entertaining respite that made us forget our worries while delivery drivers diligently ensured essential goods reached their destinations , so that our economy could achieve it function.

A key outcome of the pandemic has been the growing appreciation Americans have developed for long-overlooked “essential” workers. We realized how important they are to ensure the country’s economy can function smoothly. In turn, these “essential” workers—and workers of all stripes—gained a renewed sense of their worth—and a determination to ensure they were treated with dignity in the workplace and given freedom of choice.

This revival of the labor movement gave rise to historic organizing campaigns Starbucks, Amazon, and among graduate students at colleges and universities, to name a few. And from that point of view, we have to see what happens in the writers’ strike and the UPS negotiations. Even though all these workers perform different tasks, their struggle is the same.

Writers want higher wages, better health care and pension security, and better protection so writing doesn’t become just another “gig” job. Among other things, drivers at UPS are fighting for higher pay for part-time workers and the elimination of a second category of drivers who handle weekend deliveries so that all drivers are treated equally. It is noticeable that whether someone works in a typing room or in a mailroom, someone is fed up with the gradual debasement of their labor power due to corporate greed and the pursuit of short-term profits.

These workers are not only fighting for better wages and benefits for themselves. They are also fighting to protect the future of their jobs so that ever younger workers have the same opportunities as them.

In the revived labor movement there is enormous solidarity within and between the unions. A realization that their properties are connected. In short, workers are united in a way that hasn’t been seen in decades.

Unfortunately, Washington fails workers when they need support the most. During the last Congress, the Senate failed to pass the PRO bill, repeating a 50-year pattern of failing to reform federal labor laws to strengthen workers’ rights to freedom of association — even as Democrats both did Chambers controlled under four Democratic presidents from Carter to Biden. Even though there is a lot of energy in the labor movement at the moment, labor laws still heavily favor companies and managers who want to deny workers a say. The PRO Act would have remedied the situation by increasing penalties for violating workers’ rights, allowing struggling workers to organize and preventing employer interference to ensure free and fair union elections.

However, due to the filibuster, the Senate did not pass this much-needed bill. Likewise, last year Congress failed to increase the budget of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) enough to meet current needs. The NLRB is the agency charged with enforcing federal labor law and is often the last resort for organizing workers whose rights have been violated by their employers. At this time of historic levels of worker activity, the NLRB does not have the budget to ensure compliance with the law to uphold their rights. Employers know and understand that due to the limited resources available to the NLRB, they often face no consequences for many of their violations.

Our elected officials cannot allow that. The right to organize and restrain labor is fundamental in any country that claims to be a democracy. But a right that cannot be enforced is not a right at all. The writers’ strike and the UPS negotiations are two recent examples of why we need strong protections for workers’ freedom to organize and bargain collectively. Workers across the country are rising but have been let down in Washington for far too long. We must take bold action, pass the PRO Act and fully fund the NLRB.

Workers are united, now is the time for Washington to act.

Andy Levin is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, having worked on labor issues during two terms in Congress, as Chief Workforce Officer of Michigan, at the AFL-CIO and at the Clinton Department of Labor.

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