Portside

For some occupations, putting oneself in harm’s way is an explicit part of the job description.

Welcome to Interviews for Resistance. We’re now nearly one year into the Trump administration, and activists have scored some important victories. Yet there is always more to be done, and for many people, the question of where to focus and how to help remains. In this series, we talk with organizers, agitators, and educators, not only about how to resist, but how to build a better world.

The union reiterated that “the musicians are ready, willing and able to continue presenting concerts.”

Business groups opposing the new OSHA rules argued that current exposure levels were sufficient to protect workers.

Unions in Canada suffered some setbacks in 2017. However, movements like the Fight for $15 and Fairness show a potential way ahead. In 2018, those looking to renew the labor movement need to build power from below, encourage greater membership involvement, forge international solidarity, and confront governments, even those that are ostensibly friendly.

The way major U.S. companies provide for retiring workers has been shifting for about three decades, with more dropping traditional pensions every year. The first full generation of workers to retire since this turn offers a sobering preview of a labor force more and more dependent on their own savings for retirement.

Just cause — a legal right to your job — should be an essential part of any package of reforms to restore workplace dignity and fairness.

A universal basic income would shore up the market. We need ideas that shrink it.

Labor still has the power to throw sand in the gears of exploitation. The next step is for all these disparate troublemakers to start seeing their workplace struggles—from defending pensions to defending refugees—as part of the same bigger movement.

Thanks to strong bargaining power, the IG Metall union, which represents some 3.9 million workers in the metal and electrical industries, is pushing for a 6% wage increase and a 28-hour week for a two-year period — with limited impact on wages.