Michael Hiltzik: Strikes and strike threats — what's behind the new worker militancy and why it's a good thing

After decades of abject somnolence, American labor seems to be stirring.

Last week, 10,000 workers at 14 John Deere assembly plants walked off the job, the first strike at Deere in 35 years. And that was after rejecting a contract that had been negotiated by the United Auto Workers with a 5% raise in its first year.

There's more. Some 1,400 workers at Kellogg's four Midwestern plants went on strike Oct. 5 after failing to reach a contract in a year of bargaining over such issues as reductions in healthcare and retirement benefits.

In Buffalo, N.Y., 2,000 nurses, technologists and other service workers walked off the job at Catholic Health Mercy Hospital after the hospital and their union, the Communications Workers of America, failed to reach an agreement over what workers say are inadequate pandemic safety measures and sick leave; the union says the employer has moved in a positive direction