It’s the second day of the United Auto Workers union strike against General Motors. Around 50,000 workers walked off the assembly line at plants around the country. That’s compared to a 1970 UAW strike against GM, where 400,000 workers walked out for 67 days, forcing layoffs at parts factories and steel plants. What does shift this tell us about the changing role of the American labor movement in the nation's economy?
Harley Shaiken is a professor at the University of California Berkeley who specializes in labor and the global economy. He explains the factors that he believes are driving the strike, what’s at stake for both sides, and how this strike could affect national politics.
