As long as the strikes do not affect Americans’ daily lives, the public will continue to support them.

According to a Gallup poll released in August, Americans are becoming more supportive of labor unions, with 43% wanting unions to gain more power, up from 25% in a 2009 poll after the Great Recession. According to the same poll, 61% of Americans believe unions help the US economy rather than hurt it. This is the highest level since the 1990s. The unions are not only enjoying increased support – including from a sitting US president – but the strikes are also working. Over 11,000 members of the Writers Guild of America recently settled their strike, securing better pay and protections. Without going on strike, the Teamsters union’s threat to do so, which would have shaken the US economy to its core, significantly improved part-time worker wages

60,000 culinary workers and bartenders in Las Vegas and Reno voted last week to authorize a strike, and the United Auto Workers seem unlikely to be done striking anytime soon.

Nowadays, Americans tend to side with striking workers unless those workers perform an essential function, such as driving the bus they take to work in the morning or piloting the plane that flies them home during the holidays. Since consumers have alternatives when it comes to cars, support will continue to be high during the UAW strike. “Toyota and Honda will continue to produce,” Andrew Flowers said.