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Dockworkers strike at the entrance to a container terminal at the Port of Baltimore, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Americans are on strike. Nearly 100,000 workers across the United States are walking off the job over contract negotiations with their employers, ranging from dockworkers to Boeing employees.

The latest to join the picket line as of midnight on Tuesday are 45,0000 dockworkers from Maine to Texas. The union representing East and Gulf Coast dockworkers failed to reach a deal with ocean carriers and port operators represented by the U.S. Maritime Alliance. Specifically, the union wants stricter protections for its workers who they say are vulnerable to being replaced by automation and demanding a 77% wage increase over the next six years.

And that doesn’t include 33,000 Boeing workers, primarily in its manufacturing sector, who are still on strike after they rejected the company’s “best and final offer” for a contract. The company has since implemented a hiring freeze, paused taking on new plane and part orders (with some exceptions) and furloughing white collar and desk-based employees.

The two labor actions stem from similar complaints: wage increases, and protections for workers who could be replaced by automation or........

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