Greg Iwinski，一个深夜电视作家，今年在工人罢工的戏剧性浪潮中离开了工作岗位罢工-他说这种趋势让人们在谈判桌上感受到了它的存在。

“一家公司拥有的弹药，无论是汽车制造商还是电视工作室，都在告诉你罢工不会起作用——你的集体行动不会有帮助，”伊温斯基告诉美国广播公司新闻，他帮助促成了一项协议，为11，000名好莱坞作家大幅加薪。

Iwinski说，2023年期间一系列合同突破消除了这种想法。“如果你坚持足够长的时间，你会打破他们并取得胜利，”他说。

代表电视工作室进行谈判的电影和电视制片人联盟(AMPTP)没有立即回应ABC新闻的置评请求。

据报道，伊文斯基是2023年全国50多万罢工工人中的一员，这一数字几乎是去年同期的三倍数据通过10月底从康奈尔大学的工业和劳动关系学院与美国广播公司新闻分享。

工人抗议的急剧升级源于对工资增长缓慢的普遍不满，在许多情况下，工资增长未能跟上快速增长的步伐价格上涨，专家告诉ABC新闻。

他们补充说，受到紧张的就业市场和工会越来越多的认可的鼓舞，工人们采取了一项措施，这往往会让担心失去生计的员工感到害怕。

“这表明美国工人对他们在经济中的地位感到愤怒，”罗德岛大学的劳工教授、《10次罢工中的美国历史》的作者埃里克·卢米斯告诉美国广播公司新闻。

“我们正处于一个人们再次将罢工视为一种工具的时代，”卢米斯补充道，并指出今年罢工工人的数量上次出现在20世纪80年代初。

专家补充说，由于工人的不满情绪仍然存在，劳工斗争将在2024年继续，尽管大型工会的合同纠纷可能会减少，这可能导致罢工工人的数量减少。

从20世纪70年代末开始的40年间，工资基本持平，对一个典型的工人a哈佛商业评论分析发现。

康奈尔大学劳工行动跟踪项目主任约翰尼·卡拉斯告诉美国广播公司，近年来工资增长缓慢的累积效应与高通胀相冲突，使工人对消费能力下降感到沮丧。

“根本原因是长期工资停滞的压抑压力，”Kallas说。"那真的得到了报应。"

今年，这种愤怒的高涨与涉及美国一些最大工会的合同纠纷不谋而合。

SAG-AFTRA是一个代表大约160，000名演员的联盟，举行罢工持续了近120天，最终签订了一份3年的合同，工资上涨了约14%。

代表主要汽车制造商150，000名员工的联合汽车工人结束了为期一周的罢工罢工经过一系列协议，在4年的时间里实现了大约25%的加薪。

凯泽医疗机构大约75，000名医护人员在停工后获得了大幅加薪，数千名像Iwinski这样的电视编剧也是如此。

尽管今年罢工工人的数量大幅增加，但停工总数仍大致持平。根据康奈尔大学的数据，截至12月20日，2023年发生了405起罢工，而去年同期为407起劳工行动跟踪器.

麻省理工学院(Massachusetts Institute of Technology)名誉管理学教授托马斯·科昌(Thomas Kochan)告诉美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)，今年罢工工人人数的大幅上升在一定程度上归因于大型工会合同期限的偶然汇合。

“有些是偶然的，因为我们确实有大量较大的合同，”Kochan说，承认明年停工的规模可能会下降。

不过，Kochan补充说，一些罢工的必然性，以及其他罢工的可信威胁，应该会为工人带来工作场所的改善。

“很明显，普通工人准备罢工，”科昌说。

潜在的工作场所纠纷会出现在明年的日历上，即使很少会达到2023年高调对抗的规模。

涵盖6万名影视剧组工作人员的合同将于7月到期;而一项涉及220，000名邮政工人的协议将于2024年9月续签，根据亲工人组织的分析劳动笔记.

“我不知道明年我们是否会看到同样数量的高调罢工，但我认为我们仍然会看到很多罢工，”锡拉丘兹大学劳资关系教授Lynne Vincent告诉ABC新闻。

“2023年为事情的不同奠定了基础，”文森特补充道。“这种对话将在2024年继续。”

Unions made 2023 the year of the strike. What will happen next?

Greg Iwinski, a late-night TV writer, walked off the job this year amid a dramatic surge of workers going out onstrike-- and he says the trend made its presence felt at the bargaining table.

"The ammunition that a company has, whether it's an automaker or a TV studio, is telling you that a strike won't work -- your collective action won't help," Iwinski, who helped broker an agreement that delivered significant pay increases for 11,000 Hollywood writers, told ABC News.

A slew of contract breakthroughs over the course of 2023 dispelled that notion, Iwinski said. "If you hold out long enough, you will break them and win," he said.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, or AMPTP, which negotiated on behalf of the TV studios, did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment.

Iwinski was among more than 500,000 workers who went out on strike nationwide in 2023, nearly tripling the figure recorded over the same period a year earlier, according todatathrough the end of October from Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations shared with ABC News.

The sharp escalation in worker protests arose from widespread dissatisfaction with sluggish wage gains, which in many cases had failed to keep up with rapidprice hikes, experts told ABC News.

Emboldened by a tight job market and growing approval of unions, workers took a step that often frightens employees concerned about losing their livelihoods, they added.

"This is a demonstration of the anger that American workers have about their position in the economy," Erik Loomis, a labor professor at the University of Rhode Island and author of "A History of America in 10 Strikes," told ABC News.

"We're in an era where people are seeing the strike as a tool once again," Loomis added, noting that the number of workers on strike this year was last seen in the early 1980s.

Labor militancy will continue in 2024 since worker disaffection remains, experts added, though the potential for fewer contract disputes at large unions could result in a decline in the number of workers walking off the job.

Over a four-decade period beginning in the late-1970s, wages largely flattened, increasing 0.2% per year on an inflation-adjusted basis for a typical worker, aHarvard Business Reviewanalysis found.

The cumulative effects of sluggish wage growth collided with sky-high inflation in recent years, leaving workers frustrated over diminished spending power, Johnnie Kallas, project director of Cornell University's Labor Action Tracker, told ABC News.

"The root cause is the pent up pressure of long-term wage stagnation," Kallas said. "That has really come home to roost."

This year, that upswell of anger coincided with contract disputes involving some of the nation's largest unions.

SAG-AFTRA, a union representing roughly 160,000 actors,went out on strikefor nearly 120 days, culminating in a 3-year contract that raised wages by roughly 14%.

The United Auto Workers, a union representing 150,000 employees at major car markers, ended a weekslongstrikeafter a set of agreements that delivered a roughly 25% raise over a 4-year period.

Workers picket outside of the Ford Assembly plant as the UAW strike against the Big Three U.S. automakers continues, Oct. 10, 2023, in Chicago.

Scott Olson/Getty Images, FILE

Roughly 75,000 health care workers at Kaiser Permanente won major wage gains after a work stoppage, as did thousands of TV writers like Iwinski.

While the number of workers on strike increased significantly this year, the total work stoppages remained roughly flat. Through Dec. 20, there were 405 strikes in 2023 compared with 407 strikes over that same period a year prior, according to Cornell University'sLabor Action Tracker.

The major uptick in striking workers this year owes in part to the incidental confluence of contract deadlines at large unions, Thomas Kochan, an emeritus management professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told ABC News.

"Some of it is contingent because we did have a significant number of larger contracts," Kochan said, acknowledging that the scale of work stoppages could ebb next year.

Still, the certainty of some strikes, as well as the credible threat of others, should deliver workplace improvements for workers, Kochan added.

"It's clear that rank-and-file workers are prepared to strike," Kochan said.

Potential workplace disputes dot next year's calendar, even if few approach the size of the high-profile confrontations of 2023.

Contracts covering 60,000 film and television crew workers are set to expire in July; while an agreement concerning 220,000 postal workers will come up for renewal in September 2024, according to an analysis from the pro-worker outletLabor Notes.

"​​I don't know if we'll see the same number of high-profile strikes next year but I think we're still going to see a lot of strikes," Lynne Vincent, a professor of industrial and labor relations at Syracuse University, told ABC News.

"2023 set the stage that things are different," Vincent added. "That conversation will continue in 2024."