MILWAUKEE — A summer full of union strikes is spilling over into fall. The latest labor strike has the Port of Milwaukee bracing for impact.
Hundreds of seaway workers in Canada went on strike Sunday, shutting down a major waterway that connects Milwaukee’s port to shipping ports overseas. If the strike continues, it’s expected to affect certain Wisconsin businesses and growers who depend on the port for imports and exports.
While a brand new strike hundreds of Milwaukee away could cause shipment disruptions in Milwaukee, just south in Bay View in a completely separate industry have been on strike for nearly a month now.
“Do you think it’s going to lead to change?” TMJ4’s Ben Jordan asked.
"It must,” said Doug Frump. “One way or the other it will lead to some change."
Frump is one of dozens of union workers with signs in hand seven days a week to demand better benefits at Stellantis. It’s part of the broader autoworker strike across the nation.
"The world is watching the big three fight with the UAW right now and what we get, they'll fight for,” he said.
Frump knows autoworkers are just one of dozens of large unions on strike or preparing to strike across several different sectors. The next one on the horizon locally is a threat by We Energies union workers to strike if the company doesn’t offer them a better contract.
"There's a reason everybody's going on strike,” Frump said. “Look at the profits, look who's making all the money. Look who's doing all the work."
Explore an interactive timeline of recent strike actions:
Pam Fendt is the Milwaukee Area Labor Council’s president. The organization of about a hundred local unions represents all sorts of industries, from nursing to steel workers.
"I do think that workers are realizing we create the value, if we have serious concerns that we want to bring forward then this is what we can do to drive that point home,” she said.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, these union conflicts are happening at a level that hasn’t been seen in over two decades.
Fendt says what was deemed ‘hot strike summer’ is continuing into autumn as a variety of unions fight for better pay and safer working conditions.
“Do these unions on strike feel emboldened to get what they want given how many other unions are currently on strike?” Jordan asked.
“I do think that there's an unprecedented awakening amongst workers that this is what you can do to get management's attention,” Fendt replied.
Fendt says that attention has led to successful outcomes for unions that recently went on strike, both nationally and locally.
"We had a strike at Leinenkugel’s, they saw wages come around to what they wanted,” she said. “The Teamsters, by threatening to strike, UPS got those last items in their collective bargaining agreement that they wanted and really in this port seaway story, it's no different. They're asking for a fair and reasonable collective bargaining agreement."
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