Labor Strikes Are Getting Bigger. What Does That Mean for Employer Branding?
Forty-eight thousand academic employees of the University of California system are striking in the largest walkout in the history of academia in the United States. Pay for research and teaching assistantship jobs in the school system is paltry, and many workers can’t afford to cover their own expenses, nevermind their family’s. At the time of writing, the strike has not been resolved, but public support for the strikers is growing.
The current strike in California is on a scale of its own, but a new walkout now makes the news every week. Fueled by the forced reexamination work and a once-in-a-lifetime (albeit fading) upperhand in the job market, Americans are freshly charged up about workers’ rights.
What, then, are the implications for employer brands?
FIrst, worker confidence is accelerating, and the labor force is testing ways to reclaim power over their own livelihoods.
Strikes achieve incremental progress, and with every attempt, whether successful or not, the labor force is learning what they’re up against—which companies will retaliate, which will simply freeze them out, which are willing to sit at the bargaining table and reach an agreement—and how to win. So when a strike appears unsuccessful, it’s not necessarily a sign that workers are losing steam. In all likelihood, the next group of strikers will have learned.
Worker confidence is strong in some industries. When cartoon villain Elon Musk told Twitter employees they can go “hardcore” or leave, many took their severance. Confidence is stronger in some industries, roles, locations, and pay grades than others, of course. It’s hard to imagine a similar exodus if the same ultimatum were given on, say, a manufacturing floor in rural North Carolina.
Second, it means employers are being held up against their commitments to DEI and fair labor practices.
Perhaps more than anything, worker strikes this year, and certainly the ones that will happen in 2023, are putting employers up against the commitments they made to diversity, equity, and inclusion, worker wellbeing, and fair practices.
Already, employers are reneging on their public declarations of good faith. This fall, CEOs started calling employees back to the office despite previously enthusiastic endorsements of remote work.
In July, when Mark Zuckerberg was asked by an employee in a virtual Q&A whether the company would continue offering Meta Days—extra days of PTO instituted during the heat of the pandemic—his response was condescension. (The answer was no, it would not.)
As tech companies take enormous chunks out of their staff numbers, some DEI teams are being wiped out, and Twittern appears to have dissolved its ERGs.
The same companies that purport to champion DEI and psychologically safe workplaces are the same ones retaliating against unionizers.
It’s becoming clear which companies back their statements only when they don’t have the upperhand, only when it doesn’t cost them anything, only when it earns them shiny press placements.
Third, it means employers should ask themselves how they would respond if employees were to strike.
Now is the time for employers to self-examine. If your employees were to walk out tomorrow, what would you do? Fight? Freeze? Negotiate?
How quickly might you become an adversary to your own workers? How much more powerful, progressive, and potent is cooperation?
What about your company might make your employees want to strike tomorrow? Pay? Hours? Safety? What if you were to address those concerns before your workers feel the need to lay out an ultimatum?
We won’t pretend that PR isn’t a fundamental component of one’s employer brand, but to what extent do you use your employer brand only to manage company reputation, and to what extent do you seize the opportunity to improve your company as an employer?
Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza writes about workplace culture, DEI, and hiring. Her work has appeared in Fast Company, From Day One, and InHerSight, among others.
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