‘Essential’ Pandemic Workers Face Reckoning in Global Trade Slowdown

Union logistics workers hailed as “essential” to handle surging demand during the pandemic are about find out whether that badge of distinction still applies as they protest for higher pay just as a slowdown in global commerce worsens.

Trade growth will weaken sharply next year, according to the World Trade Organization’s latest forecasts, which predicted a gain of just 1% for 2023, compared with its previous forecast of 3.4% and estimated growth of 3.5% this year. That may undermine the leverage organized labor had just a few months ago to extract demands when the outlook wasn’t as bleak.