Hollywood actors and writers belonging to SAG-AFTRA and the WGA respectively are on strike. Major labor unions like the Teamsters and the United Auto Workers (UAW) are at the negotiating tables with employers with a set strike date in mind if demands are not met. Yahoo Finance's Josh Schafer, Alexandra Canal, and Pras Subramanian examine the labor market conditions pushing workers to strike for improved wages and benefits this summer.

This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

Video Transcript

- Well, it's time to go around the horn and check in on some of the trending stories of the day.

Josh Schafer, Alexandra Canal, Pras Subramanian, take it away.

JOSH SCHAFER: Yeah, Seana.

We're taking a look at some of our favorite stories of the day over here.

And I want to start with the strike and sort of the trend we're seeing in strikes.

So Ale, we've talked a lot about the Hollywood strike, writers' strike, actors' strike.

But another thing we're seeing now is potential strikes that we might see across other industries, right?

So it's been interesting to see there might be a strike coming for UPS.

There might be a strike coming for us in your industry with some of the autos.

There was a funny quote.

One of the article's calling it "strike girl summer" or "hot strike summer" or something, which I thought was-- "hot strike summer."

Pretty funny phrase for a not funny topic.

But it's been interesting to see that sort of pick up and how maybe groups start to rally around this, right?

And you see it beyond Hollywood.

I feel like we've talked a lot about Hollywood and haven't necessarily broken down some of the other strikes that are happening as well.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: And I think there is a strength in numbers.

Mentality here, you become pretty emboldened once you see others going out there and fighting for certain rights.

And I think, that is on top of timing here.

We're coming out of the pandemic where a lot of these-- on the company side as well have faced a heck of a lot of challenges.

A lot of things were delayed because of the pandemic, particularly in Hollywood, right?

These deals come around every three years.

The last time we were having this conversation, it was 2020, where everyone across the board, actors, writers, directors, they just wanted to keep the lights on.

But there were still these issues in the background.

So now, here we are three years later, and everyone's had enough.

They said, OK, we kept the lights on.

Now, what's the next step there.

So I think timing, coupled with this very tight labor market that we're seeing, is really ground for breeding a lot of these strikes.

But then it's difficult on the company side to try and make a deal.

And at least with the Hollywood strikes that I'm looking at, a lot of these media companies, they are bleeding money.

And they don't have the flexibility to make this grand deal for-- for what these actors, writers want.

So it's a very complicated environment right now.

JOSH SCHAFER: But they're also pretty pressed because they need the content at some point too, right?

ALEXANDRA CANAL: It's a-- it's a push-pull.

JOSH SCHAFER: They do need the money.

So they're going to have to figure that-- ALEXANDRA CANAL: It's who's going to cave first situation.

JOSH SCHAFER: Of course.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: Yeah.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: So I think it is a big, big, big year for labor right.

So the UAW on my side of the ledger here, they're going to-- threatening to go on strike if they can get a deal done this fall with the three major automakers.

And the UAW putting out a statement of support for the WGA and-- and SAG because they're all kind of in together.

And why?

We're in the middle of earning season.

I'm sorry, companies are making a lot of money, and labor's saying, where is our share?

Look at the data.

Labor has-- this is the lowest share of corporate profits they've ever had.

That's how low it is coming out of the pandemic.

They didn't want to step on any shoes.

So it's sort of like, I can see why this is happening.

Inflation kind of taming, but it was there-- high interest rates, you know.

Blame Jay Powell.

I don't know.

But I mean, you know, it's just-- it's just a big summer for labor.

JOSH SCHAFER: Plays a part of it, though.

When you look at a lot of different consumer kind of surveys, right, it's starting to come down a little bit with the most recent inflation print in the last couple of months.

But generally, people have sort of felt inflation is higher than it actually is.

And it's impacting them maybe at an even further level than some metrics show.

I think it's-- it's a time right now where people are very focused on those things and are saying, well, things are more expensive at the grocery store.

It's impacting me.

My job should match inflation.

I just hear that all the time from people, from friends, right?

My-- why isn't my raise matching inflation?

Inflation was 9% last year.

I didn't get a 9% raise.

That's not necessarily how it works, but that's how people look at it.

And that's what workers want.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Your rent's going up-- for all of us.

And then again, we're in earnings season.

We're seeing those multi-- Netflix had a good quarter, right?

They made a lot of money, right?

So Where's my share, right?

That's what-- that's what Ben McKenzie people are asking about, right?