You may have heard UAW President Shawn Fain blustering about how 2028 will be the next big year for contract negotiations. He’s been making that claim to rustle up General Strike interest by coordinating expiration dates across industries. However, it’s never wise to believe Shawn Fain, and this subject is no exception. Indeed, 2026 carries potential for scattered yet pivotal strikes if certain contract talks break down.
Sure, this year’s battles probably won’t match those of 2023, which included high-profile struggles between the Teamsters and UPS and the UAW and Big Three automakers. Nor will this year be quite like 2025, which saw maneuvering from the International Longshoremen’s Association and strikes by UFCW against grocers and IAM against Boeing.
No single 2026 contract renewal is guaranteed to dominate headlines, but this year’s collective bargaining talks will involve hundreds of thousands of workers in a wide swath of industries. Progressive publication Labor Notes has an exhaustive list of even the tiniest contracts up for renewal, but here are the negotiations truly worth watching:
Hospitality
In NYC, the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council’s Industry-Wide Agreement expires on July 1 for a claimed 40,000 members. Notably, this will be this union’s first renewal in over a decade, so we can expect them to push hard on wages, pension contributions, and more.
Retail
UFCW’s Stop & Shop contract for over 30,000 East Coast workers expires on Mar. 1. These negotiations arrive with a combative history: In 2019, UFCW locals put 31,000 workers on strike, partially over healthcare costs, and 2022’s contract hinged on that same theme.
Manufacturing
USW contracts for at least 20,000 U.S. Steel and Cleveland-Cliffs workers expire on Sept. 1, less than a year after Nippon Steel’s acquisition of U.S. Steel. Additionally, Marathon Petroleum will speak for several companies on contracts expiring on Feb. 1 for around 30,000 workers “at refineries that account for over half of national crude oil processing capacity.”
On a smaller scale for USW, contracts expire in May for 3,000+ Arconic aluminum processing workers and in July for 6000+ tire, rubber, and plastics workers at Goodyear and Bridgestone-Firestone plants.
Boeing won’t get a break after enduring 2024 and 2025 strikes. An SPEEA contract covering up to 18,000 Pacific Coast engineers expires in October.
Healthcare
Kaiser of Northern California’s contract with over 21,000 National Nurses United members expires in August. Nursing unions are fond of extended strikes against Kaiser Permanente, so another walkout could be on the way.
Media
The Writers Guild of America contract expires on May 1, three years after the union carried out a 148-day strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The end result was a contract that didn’t attempt an outright AI ban, but we can expect that conversation to continue.
Telecommunications
The AT&T Mobility Orange contract expires on Feb. 13 and covers 14,000 CWA members, including call center and tech workers in California, Illinois, New York, Oregon, and Texas.
Verizon’s CWA contract expires in August after last year’s joint negotiations with IBEW did not end with an extension.
Construction
An IBEW Wiremen’s Agreement expires in June for 12,000 electricians who work on projects in Los Angeles County.
What of the Teamsters and UAW?
Oh, they’re around as usual.
Two Teamsters contracts will expire in March. Those include 17,000 First Student drivers and support staffers across the U.S. and 3,000 DHL drivers in the Boston area.
Meanwhile, Shawn Fain’s heavy investment in higher ed organizing, despite how the UAW has disappointed these workers, means that he’ll soon be shouting again over a recently expired contract for tens of thousands of University of California researchers and grad student workers.
And That’s Not All
We’re almost out of space for this roundup, and we haven’t even touched upcoming talks between Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association, who will discuss a proposed salary cap with the current CBA expiring in December. And in the public sector, the National Association of Letter Carriers’ contract for 200,000 postal workers expires in November.
In other words, do not expect a dull moment at the bargaining table in 2026.
