PORTSIDELABOR List

Turkish Unions Strike Again, Bolstering Call for Government to Resign

2013-06-18T00:21:09-04:00

Turkish Unions Strike Again, Bolstering Call for Government to Resign

June 18, 2013
By Samantha Winslow
Labor Notes (June 17, 2013)

A growing number of trade unions representing 800,000 Turkish workers, including members of the KESK and DISK labor coalitions, went out on strike again today.

A growing number of trade unions representing 800,000 Turkish workers, including members of the KESK and DISK labor coalitions, went out on strike again today. [...]

Loeb Opposes Teachers Union on Pensions as Asness Quits

2013-06-17T00:47:19-04:00

Loeb Opposes Teachers Union on Pensions as Asness Quits

June 16, 2013
By Martin Z. Braun and Amanda Gordon
BLOOMBERG (June 12, 2013)

In April, the union included four billionaires on its “watch list” of money managers that support groups the labor organization said are hostile to traditional public pensions. The groups included StudentsFirst, an organization that backs eliminating tenure and funding charter schools at the same level as public ones. Daniel Loeb, founder of Third Point LLC, an activist investor is the only one of 33 managers targeted by the AFT to push back publicly against the union. [...]

IndustriALL launches new print magazine “Global Worker”

2013-06-14T20:49:11-04:00

IndustriALL launches new print magazine “Global Worker”

June 14, 2013
By
IndustriALL (June 14, 2013)

The first copy of IndustriALL Global Union’s biannual print magazine “Global Worker” was launched this week at the 28-29 May IndustriALL Executive Committee.

You are holding in your hands the first issue of Global Worker, the printed journal of IndustriALL Global Union. It is packed full with features, interviews and profiles on a wide
range of issues from a workers' perspective.
In June 2012, IndustriALL Global Union was created at a founding congress in Copenhagen in a merger between three global organizations, the IMF, ICEM [...]

Do private-sector unions still have a future in the U.S.?

2013-06-13T22:33:13-04:00

Do private-sector unions still have a future in the U.S.?

June 13, 2013
By Brad Plumer
Washington Post (June 13, 2013)

Brad Plumer's blog post summarizes a long and interesting essay in the latest issue of "Democracy" that analyzes the decline, and long-term outlook, of private-sector unions in the United States. He highlights 3 factors: Taft-Hartley was the beginning of the end for unions in the private sector; labor’s recent attempts to launch new organizing drives aren’t working; and organized labor tends to expand only at rare points in history. [...]

How Taxpayers Subsidize Union Avoidance by Wal-Mart and Nissan

2013-06-12T21:50:57-04:00

How Taxpayers Subsidize Union Avoidance by Wal-Mart and Nissan

June 12, 2013
By Phil Mattera
Dirt Diggers Digest (June 6, 2013)

The study, which updates a 2004 report by the committee, reviews the hidden taxpayer costs stemming from the fact that many Wal-Mart workers have no choice but to use social safety net programs -- such as Medicaid, Section 8 Housing, food stamps and the Earned Income Tax Credit -- that were designed for individuals not in the labor force or those working for small companies that failed to provide decent compensation, not a leviathan with $17 billion in annual [...]

Nearly 300 Cambodian Garment Makers Fired over Strikes

2013-06-11T21:21:36-04:00

Nearly 300 Cambodian Garment Makers Fired over Strikes

June 11, 2013
By
Reuters (June 11, 2013)

Low-cost labor has attracted Western brands to the Southeast Asian country and garments now account for around 75 percent of its exports, but strikes over pay and working conditions have become common. Thousands of workers at Sabrina (Cambodia) Garment Manufacturing Corp went on strike for higher pay from May 21. [...]

Austerity Hampered Job Growth

2013-06-10T02:37:05-04:00

Austerity Hampered Job Growth

June 9, 2013
By Heather Boushey
Market Watch (The Wall Street Journal) (June 7, 2013)

The U.S. economy added a respectable 175,000 jobs in May, slightly above the average of 172,000 per month over the past year. This good news overall was driven by private-sector employment gains, as federal and state governments continued to work against recovery by shedding workers. [...]

Book Review: "Just Cause, A Union Guide"

2013-06-07T19:27:15-04:00

Book Review: "Just Cause, A Union Guide"

June 7, 2013
By Rand Wilson
Submitted to Portside by the Author (June 7, 2013)

Just Cause: A Union Guide to Winning Disciplinary Cases is no exception. Based on more than four years of research into 15,000 arbitration awards and the author’s long experience representing unions, the book presents a new method to analyze and present disciplinary cases. [...]

How Unions Avert Tragedies, Save Lives

2013-06-06T22:35:50-04:00

How Unions Avert Tragedies, Save Lives

June 6, 2013
By
(June 6, 2013)

A building collapse in Philadelphia kills 6 - a non-union contractor with a shady history faces scrutiny - see 2 articles below. The factory collapse in Bangladesh that killed more than 1,100 workers is another glaring example of workers without union protection at the mercy of greedy employers and corrupt politicians. But this cycle can finally be broken if demands for change start to focus on workers’ right to form trade unions - see opinion column below. [...]

Protesters and Police Clash at Nike Factory in Cambodia

2013-06-04T21:10:18-04:00

Protesters and Police Clash at Nike Factory in Cambodia

June 4, 2013
By
ValueWalk.com (June 4, 2013)

While so far protests remain isolated, poor conditions across Cambodia, and poorer Asian states for that matter, could result in more widespread demonstrations. Bangladesh may be garnering most of the headlines due to recent tragedies, but conditions across poorer Asian states remain equally dire. Still, governments are hesitant to step in out of fear that manufacturers will relocate elsewhere, taking jobs and tax revenues with them. [...]

Charley Richardson R.I.P. Union Activist, Protested Iraq War

2013-06-03T23:39:12-04:00

Charley Richardson R.I.P. Union Activist, Protested Iraq War

June 3, 2013
By JM Lawrence
Boston Globe (June 3, 2013)

A former shipfitter at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy and a longtime labor union activist, Mr. Richardson cofounded Military Families Speak Out, an organization that mushroomed to include more than 4,000 families, along with chapters in 18 states. Mr. Richardson directed the Labor Extension Program at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and trained union leaders around the world, died May 4 in his Jamaica Plain home. He was 60. [...]

SEIU Accused of Trying to Take Over Union that Represents Disneyland Resort Food Service Workers

2013-06-02T22:48:37-04:00

SEIU Accused of Trying to Take Over Union that Represents Disneyland Resort Food Service Workers

June 2, 2013
By Gabriel San Roman
OC Weekly (June 2, 2013)

Two unions apparently squared off at the Anaheim office of Local 50 yesterday over who rightfully represents the 5,000 food service workers of the Disneyland Resort. A flyer distributed by Local 50 accuses the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) of attempting to take over the facility as well as bank account funds. [...]

Locomotive Builders Say, ‘Keep It Made in Erie!’

2013-05-31T11:25:41-04:00

Locomotive Builders Say, ‘Keep It Made in Erie!’

May 31, 2013
By Mark Haller
Labor Notes (May 31, 2013)

Locomotive builders in Erie, Pennsylvania, are rallying today to demand that General Electric stop the transfer of nearly a third of the plant’s jobs to a non-union, lower-wage factory in Texas.

Locomotive builders in Erie, Pennsylvania, are rallying today to demand that General Electric stop the transfer of nearly a third of the plant’s jobs to a non-union, lower-wage factory in Texas.
The three actions—one for each shift—follow the profitable factory’s April 9 announcement that 950 union jobs would be moved [...]

Fast Food Workers Striking in Seattle

2013-05-30T21:35:18-04:00

Fast Food Workers Striking in Seattle

May 30, 2013
By Josh Eidelson
The Nation (May 30, 2013)

Yesterday, workers at dozens of Seattle fast food restaurants went on strike against poverty wages. This marks the nation's seventh work stoppage by fast food employees in the last eight weeks. The strikers are demanding a raise to $15 an hour and the right to organize unions without retaliation or intimidation. [...]

7 Reasons Why the Labor Movement Has Stalled

2013-05-29T20:42:29-04:00

7 Reasons Why the Labor Movement Has Stalled

May 29, 2013
By David Macaray
Huffington Post (May 28, 2013)

Alarmed when a friend, a "self-described 'McGovern Democrat'" said that "alas, she could no longer support organized labor because, in her own, stunning words, 'unions have become too powerful,'" the author of this opinion column offers up seven factors that he believes have contributed to the decline of organized labor. [...]

Walmart Workers Launch First-Ever 'Prolonged Strikes' Today

2013-05-28T22:04:27-04:00

Walmart Workers Launch First-Ever 'Prolonged Strikes' Today

May 28, 2013
By Josh Eidelson
The Nation (Blog) (May 28, 2013)

Organizers expect retail employees in more cities to join the work stoppage, which follows the country’s first-ever coordinated Walmart store strikes last October, and a high-profile Black Friday walkout November 23. Like Black Friday’s, today’s strike is being framed by the union-backed labor group OUR Walmart as a response to retaliation against worker-activists. [...]

Make the Road New York: Success Through 'Love and Agitation'

2013-05-27T22:31:09-04:00

Make the Road New York: Success Through 'Love and Agitation'

May 27, 2013
By Jane McAlevey
The Nation (May 21, 2013)

From stopping wage theft to organizing carwasheros, victories have come from meeting workers where they live.

At a late-night meeting in early spring, using a form of popular theater common in social movements throughout the Latin American countries they emigrated from, dozens of immigrant carwash workers put on a play for an audience of 200 to dramatize the bad treatment and dangerous conditions in New York City’s carwashes. In the play’s final act, the carwasheros unfurl six home-made, body-length [...]

Striking Dubai Workers Face Mass Deportation

2013-05-27T02:48:26-04:00

Striking Dubai Workers Face Mass Deportation

May 26, 2013
By Chris Arsenault
ALJAZEERA (May 23, 2013)

Backed by security forces, bosses at Arabtec - a massive construction firm with interests across the oil-rich Gulf states - ended a strike on Monday, but the fallout continues as more workers are receiving deportation orders. The strike ended after management refused to accept demands for increased wages from people earning about $200 a month to complete mega-projects in 40 degree Celsius heat. [...]

Interview with Michael Lebowitz & Readers Comment

2013-05-24T19:15:25-04:00

Interview with Michael Lebowitz & Readers Comment

May 24, 2013
By
(May 24, 2013)

We talked with Michael about the contemporary crisis and the possibilities of overcoming it, about the experiences and contradictions that characterized the societies of “real socialism” in the 20th century, and also about the possibilities of building a socialist alternative that would not be limited within the boundaries set by similar attempts in the last century. [...]

World Climate Crisis and Organized Labor

2013-05-23T23:11:28-04:00

World Climate Crisis and Organized Labor

May 23, 2013
By Joe Uehlein and Jeremy Brecher, Rebecca Burns
(May 22, 2013)

With atmospheric carbon dioxide levels having reached the 400 ppm point - way above the 350 ppm considered to be the upper limit for avoiding environmental catastrophe - organized labor is struggling with the tension between the immediate need for jobs in a crisis-ridden economy and the perils to humanity's future of avoiding the sacrifices required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The following two articles discuss those tensions from different angles. [...]

U.S. Taxpayers Fund More Low-wage Jobs than McDonalds and Wal-Mart

2013-05-22T22:56:28-04:00

U.S. Taxpayers Fund More Low-wage Jobs than McDonalds and Wal-Mart

May 22, 2013
By Gregory N. Heires
The New Crossroads (May 22, 2013)

The public policy think tank Demos has issued a report documenting how the federal government is using taxpayer money to subsidize low paid wage workers. This has allowed corporations to pay low wages to the detriment of the workforce. [...]

University of California Hospital Workers Strike Today, Demand Safer Staffing, Pensions

2013-05-21T21:01:34-04:00

University of California Hospital Workers Strike Today, Demand Safer Staffing, Pensions

May 21, 2013
By Samantha Winslow
Labor Notes (May 21, 2013)

The UC health-care system boasts nearly $7 billion in operating revenue, but management wants to create a two-tier pension system for workers, while executives get yearly pension payouts of as much as $300,000.
The union is demanding stronger protection against subcontracting. Workers also want more of a voice in staffing and patient care matters. [...]

Bangladesh Garment Workers: Two Updates

2013-05-20T22:31:57-04:00

Bangladesh Garment Workers: Two Updates

May 20, 2013
By AFP, Omar Rivero
(May 20, 2013)

Bangladeshi police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at thousands of garment workers Monday as they demanded a wage hike at a protest in a manufacturing hub outside the capital Dhaka. Several European retailers have agreed to compensate victims' families, and sign onto the Fire and Building Safety Agreement, but U.S. retailers refuse. See the list of 14 North American retailers who refuse to sign on. [...]

Fiery Chicago Teachers Union President Reelected

2013-05-20T01:16:05-04:00

Fiery Chicago Teachers Union President Reelected

May 19, 2013
By Valerie Strauss
The Washington Post (May 18, 2013)

Lewis won about 80 percent of the votes, soundly defeating a candidate representing a coalition of groups that used to run the union until Lewis took office three years.

Karen Lewis, the fiery leader of the Chicago Teachers Union who led a strike last year and became a nationally known anti-school reform figure, has been elected to another three-year term as president. Today she will lead the first of three days of protests against Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to close 54 public [...]

The State of the NLRB-Two Articles

2013-05-17T19:37:32-04:00

The State of the NLRB-Two Articles

May 17, 2013
By
(May 17, 2013)

WASHINGTON -- With the Senate about to consider President Obama's nominees to the National Labor Relations Board, Democrats and labor groups are growing concerned that Republicans will block the administration's left-leaning nominations, rendering the board inoperable once a current member's term expires in August. [...]

Labor Wrestles With Its Future

2013-05-16T21:45:04-04:00

Labor Wrestles With Its Future

May 16, 2013
By Harold Meyerson
Washington Post (May 8, 2013)

Unions face an existential problem: If they can’t represent more than a sliver of American workers on the job, what is their mission? Are there other ways they can advance workers’ interests even if those workers aren’t their members? A new labor movement might resemble a latter-day version of the Knights of Labor, the workers’ organization of the 1880s that was a cross between a union federation, a working-class political vehicle, and a fraternal lodge. [...]

Holding the Line For Chicago Teachers Union

2013-05-15T22:04:52-04:00

Holding the Line For Chicago Teachers Union

May 15, 2013
By Lee Sustar
SOCIALISTWORKER.org ()

President Karen Lewis and the Caucus of Rank and file Educators (CORE successfully defeated Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his corporate allies. They deserve support in the current union election

Lee Sustar compares the record of the Chicago Teachers Union leadership, running for re-election in a May 17 vote, with its counterparts in other cities around the U.S.
May 15, 2013
The CORE slate for top offices in the CTU (left to right): Michael Brunson, Kristine Mayle, Karen Lewis and Jesse Sharkey
THE CHALLENGERS in [...]