Over 100,000 American workers are reportedly threatening to strike this week amid the supply chain crisis, citing “low staffing levels” and “burnout.”
The American workers who are threatening to strike work for Hollywood production companies, John Deere, and Kaiser Permanente, the Hill reported.
The threats to strike would add to the thousands more who have already been on strike, “including 2,000 New York hospital workers, 700 Massachusetts nurses and 1,400 Kellogg plant workers in Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.”
President of the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals Jodi Barschow told the Hill that Kaiser nurses are ready to strike over “pandemic-induced burnout exacerbated by low staffing levels.”
Kaiser’s proposals “show a profound disrespect for the frontline healthcare workers who are risking their lives during COVID,” Barschow remarked, noting any strike would “severely disrupt” the healthcare supply chain.
Kaiser’s senior vice president of human resources, Arlene Peasnall, responded to the threats by asking employees to tend to patients. “We ask that our employees reject a call to walk away from the patients who need them,” Peasnall said. “Our priority is to continue to provide our members with high-quality, safe care.”
John Deere is also experiences an employee mutiny over “cuts for new hires.” A strike for John Deere could mean 10,000 employees may not show up for work on Thursday and would be the first strike for John Deere in 30 years, the Hill reported.
Hollywood is also reportedly facing about 60,000 employees who are threatening to strike “after their union failed to secure a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents Hollywood and streaming giants such as The Walt Disney Co., Warner Bros. and Netflix.”
Apparently the film employees are frustrated with limited time for “meal breaks and sleep,” along with low wages. The Hill notes that if the strike is carried out, it would be “the largest walkouts in recent history.”
The threats of strikes come as state and federal coronavirus unemployment money has exasperated the employment market. The Biden-Harris administration admitted so on Tuesday to the New York Times. “Administration officials acknowledged on Tuesday in a call with reporters that the $1.9 trillion economic aid package President Biden signed into law in March had contributed to supply chain issues,” the New York paper wrote.
U.S. President Joe Biden takes the stage before delivering remarks on the September jobs numbers in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on October 08, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Labor shortages are not just impacting Hollywood production companies, John Deere, and Kaiser Permanente. The trucking industry is also facing labor shortages, which is contributing to the supply chain crisis at U.S. ports, where large amounts of containers are clogging up new freight deliveries.
CEO of Freight Right Global Logistics Robert Khachatryan exclusively told Breitbart News on Tuesday 62 ships were unable to unload their containers at California ports this week, delaying inventories for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
The shipping congestion is so great that large companies such as Home Depot are chartering their own private vessels to drop freight at smaller ports. But with truckers in low supply to remove the containers from the ports, trucking companies are having a hard time retaining employees.
Old Dominion Freight Line will reportedly hire any driver with or without experience, KHQ NBC reported Sunday. Old Dominion held a job fair Saturday to “hire 10 line drivers who can haul several trailers across the state” while offering to train anyone who wishes to earn a truckers license.
As a result, the supply chain crisis due to a labor shortage, which may be exasperated by new strikes, is raising prices. In August, for example, inflation increased 5.3 percent compared to 2020. A Moody’s economist Mark Zandi told the New York Post Friday that inflation is costing American consumers an extra $175 a month.
The extra costs to consumers are reportedly going to be sustained until 2023, Coresight Research Founder and CEO Deborah Weinswig told Yahoo Finance Live on Tuesday.
“Let’s look at the math: It’s 14 days to get a container from APAC to the U.S. and 40 days for it to get back,” Weinswig explained. “And we have a complete container misalignment right now. So that’s 80 days, we’re talking, in our opinion — we’re probably looking at Q1 2023 before all of those containers get back and realign.”
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