Are Strikes Successful?

This paper describes and provides details about different strikes that happened throughout the decade.  Even though the NFL, NBA, and NHL lockout, MTA strike, General Motors strike, and the Hayward, California teacher’s strike have their unique issues they all have many of the same issues in common.  The workers/employees demanded more money and the employers want to pay the employees less so that they could bring in more profit. . People are often asking for more and sometimes the only way they feel they can get more is to go on strike for it shows that they are willing to do anything for what they believe in. As United Auto Workers (UAW) President Ron Gettelfinger once said, "No one benefits in a strike.”  I believe the message he was trying to share was that when a strike happens the only way for it to be resolved is to have both sides compromise because one side rarely gets everything they want. 

General Motors Strike

There was a strike by General Motors employees which begun on September 24^th and ended on September 26^th 2007.  More than 73,000 workers hit the picket lines after walking off of the job at the nation’s largest automaker.  The strike was, like most strikes, organized by the union (all employees belonged to United Auto Workers).  The strike halted operations at over 80 facilities in 30 states.  A minimum of 12,200 vehicles per day or 760 vehicles per hour stopped being made.  The employees were striking due to the need for better job security, benefits, wages, and investments in US facilities.  The company first tried to address the situation by only providing better health care, claiming that they offered the union $51 billion in healthcare expenses for retirees.  The Union didn’t accept and the strike continued for a couple more days.  In the end both sides worked out a deal by compromising with one other.

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NHL Lockout

On January 6^th 2003 the NHL lockout started.  Many players were being underpaid and wanted an increase in salary and health benefits.  These increases were due primarily to the many injuries players in the NHL experience in this extremely violent sport.  Like most sports (i.e. the NFL and NBA) each team within the league had a salary cap.  The players petitioned for the cap to be increased while the owners wanted the cap to be lower.  At first both sides wanted to negotiate so that the upcoming season wouldn’t be at risk, but that changed very soon.  With both sides wanting very different things the lockout prevented an entire season!  The league hired an investigator, Arthur Levitt, to release financial reports for each team.  Within his final report it was stated: “If player costs aren’t reduced the NHL will be on a treadmill to obscurity.” The reports also stated that “in the 2002-2003 season only 11 of the 30 teams in the NHL were profitable.”  The Union called the report “flawed”.  In the end, The NHL and NHLPA reached a deal on July 13^th 2005 missing a whole season and disappointing a lot of fans.

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Hayward, California Teacher's Strike

 

In April of 2007 there was a major teacher strike in Hayward California.  The strike started on April 5^th.  On the first day of the strike only 45 of the 900 total teachers showed up to work.  Being aware of the strike, only 4,100 of the 20,000 students showed up to school.  The teachers were upset about the amount of money they were making and thought they deserved a raise.  The teachers paraded around the schools where they were supposed to be working, inviting cars that passed by to honk and for people to blow whistles in support.  Similar to the MTA strike, the teachers received wide spread public support.  The teachers wanted a 8.08 percent raise for the first year with another 7.92 percent raise the next year – equaling a 16 percent raise in total after 2 years.  The board members countered that with a 7 percent initial raise with another 1.7 percent raise the following year.  On April 25^th both sides agreed to 11 percent raise over the next two years.

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MTA Strike

On December 20^th 2005 the MTA strike started, inconveniencing over 50,000 New Yorkers.  The MTA employees who were on strike who shared their concerns by picketing chanted the followed slogans, “no contract no work,” “A deadline is a deadline,” and “no givebacks.”  The strikers had widespread support from the public.  A striker was quoted as saying:  “at our picket the local pizza parlor operator gave us free food and drinks throughout the strike".  Passersby on foot shared their support and vehicles that passed honked their horns.  Some non-MTA members even joined our picket lines.  In the past when the MTA workers wanted raises the Metropolitan Transportation Authority lied about its finances – claiming they didn’t have the money to give people raises.  In actuality the MTA had hundreds of millions of dollars in surplus.  When the workers found out about this they decided to strike.  When the strike was finally over the MTA members found themselves receiving very little.  The members will receive a 3 percent raise the first year, a 4 percent raise the second year, and a 3.5 percent raise the third year.  The MTA will provide disability insurance up to 170 dollars a week for 26 weeks if an injury is obtained while on the job.  The employee will only incur a 1.5 percent increase in current medical premiums.   Lifetime medical has also been given to MTA employees.

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NBA Lockout

The 2012 NBA lockout has just started.  The lockout has only been 'official' for a couple of months and mediation between the NBA owners and National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) has begun.  There are many issues/disagreements between the NBPA and the NBA owners.  Right now the two sides are mainly focused on two key issues.  Similar to the NFL lockout, the NBA players are concerned about the way the salary cap has been set as well as the way the revenue distribution is taking place.  The salary cap for last year was 58 million dollars.  On Thursday the 20^th of October 2011 the main focus of the mediation session between the NBA and the NBPA was on the division of revenues.  During this mediation session the NBA owners announced that they will be canceling the first two weeks of the NBA season – canceling in total, 100 games.  To date the players have lost about 170 million dollars in salaries for the 2012 NBA season.


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NFL Lockout

The NFL lockout was executed due to multiple disputes/disagreements between the NFLPA and the NFL owners.  Some of the key issues were as follows: who gets what money, the length of the season, the ability to fine/suspend players, rules, and regulations.  The NFL in 2010 was a NINE BILLION dollar industry and in the previous CBA there were no specific restrictions on how that money could be distributed (i.e. how much can players be paid, how much revenue owners can bring in, etc.).  The disputes/disagreements were resolved by both parties agreeing to a number of constraints.  Every team had to enforcing a salary cap which meant that no one team could spend more than 120 million dollars in salary on their players in a given year. In 20l0 there were 4 preseason weeks and 17 regular season weeks.  The commissioner and the NFL team owners wanted only two pre-season weeks and 19 regular season weeks.  The reason for the reduction of pre-season games and the increase in regular season games was that there were never as many fans in attendance during the pre-season games as regular season games so the owners, wanting to make more money, wanted more regular season games.  The NFLPA did not want this because this would expose the players to more risk of injury during games that did not result in direct team success. During the CBA sessions the NFLPA and the NFL owners eventually reached an agreement.  The NFLPA agreed to allow the owners to enforce a salary cap and the owners agreed to keep the regular season to 17 weeks games.

Stikes

              In 2011, immediately after the 2010 - 2011 NFL season, the NFL went into a labor strike (lockout)!  The strike began in March, 2011 shortly after the Super bowl.     This strike was not a surprise for there were 'rumblings' within the leagues union for quite some time due to multiple disagreements regarding revenue distribution percentages.  The current collective bargaining agreement(CBA) was due to expire February 20 so technically after this date (Super Bowl)  the NFL was no longer in existence.  In order for the NFL to begin functioning again the NFLPA (National Football League Players Association) and the NFL owners needed to reach an agreement on all outstanding issues and have these agreements documented within a new collective bargaining agreement. The NFLPA consists of representatives from all of players, both active and non-active.
           Coincidently we have recently experienced strikes from the National Basketball Association (NBA), National Hockey League (NHL), teachers at Hayward University, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) workers, all for similar reasons.