Although beer is, strictly speaking, an agricultural product, the strike at the Leinenkugel brewery in Chippewa Falls, WI, does not directly relate to the produce industry. But indirectly it does.
Some 40 workers are striking because the brewer, owned by Molson Coors, has lagged behind on wage increases. Leinenkugel’s brewery workers stage strike in Wisconsin over wages – The Washington Post
One worker who started in 1990 was paid $18 an hour. My friend, the inflation calculator, tells me that today’s equivalent would be $43.11. Today he is being paid only $5.50 more—which has roughly half the purchasing power of the original wage.
This is not the most prominent labor issue at a time when both Hollywood writers and actors are on strike against the major studios, UPS is facing similar action from the Teamsters, and the less than truckload (LTL) company Yellow is facing bankruptcy as a result of a work stoppage. No strike at Yellow; Central States grants extension – FreightWaves But it is part of a larger picture and relates to every employer in this country.
“The Leinenkugel’s strike shows the breadth and diversity of worker angst after years of wages lagging inflation,” reports the Washington Post. “Small pockets of picketing are cropping up in many local communities across the nation, including at a sour cream plant in De Pere, WI, a paper mill in Grand Rapids, MN, and among six workers at Three Brothers Coffee in Nashville.”
High inflation and a growing shortage of workers as baby boomers retire have inspired these actions, but they are also the result of a decades-long stagnation in pay and purchasing power for a large sector of the American working public.
It is only likely to continue. All appearances indicate that the coming decade will see a wave of labor actions unseen since the 1930s and 1940s.
Although such moves may become politicized, they are simply the consequences of a market economy. Business is business. If you’re at the auto dealer and he doesn’t give you the price you want, you (hopefully have the guts to) walk away. It is exactly the same in the labor market, and the basic pressures will not relent in the foreseeable future.
I certainly can’t make any gross generalizations about produce firms. Some are exemplary in their treatment of workers—including pay—and others are disgraces. (I leave it to you to sort out which are which.)
But it seems clear that unless workers’ real wages at least match inflation—not counting pay increases for seniority and merit—employers are vulnerable. Not everyone will face concerted labor action but may see equally disastrous effects in high turnover and quiet quitting.
Yes, we know: industry margins are thin, and produce suppliers are price takers rather than price makers. But beyond a certain point, workers simply aren’t going to care. They don’t like being price takers either.
