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Portside aims to provide material of interest to people on the left that will help them to interpret the world and to change it.

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When Unions Lead Education Reform

Rachel M. Cohen In These Times
Like Bargaining for the Common Good, TURN members also believe teachers need to approach bargaining more creatively and boldly. Specifically, TURN wants to see unions negotiate over policies that “advance student learning,” such as reducing the number of standardized tests students must take while also pushing for new kinds of assessments that measure skills like creativity.

labor

Veterans and the Minimum Wage

Elena Holodny Business Insider
Approximately 1.8 million veterans in payroll jobs across the US would get a raise if Congress raised the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2024. Nearly two-thirds of the veterans who would get the raise are age 40 or older, over 60% have some college experience, and nearly 70% work full time. The real federal minimum wage peaked back in 1968.

labor

'Some Kids Are Not Orphans Because Of This': How Unions Are Keeping Workers Safe

Steven Greenhouse The Guardian
As labor unions across much of the world struggle to increase their membership, how do workers get their employers to raise wages and assure safe conditions? That’s the question some of the world’s most innovative worker groups are asking. And they’re hopeful they have found a solution.

labor

'Some Kids Are Not Orphans Because Of This': How Unions Are Keeping Workers Safe

Steven Greenhouse The Guardian
As labor unions across much of the world struggle to increase their membership, how do workers get their employers to raise wages and assure safe conditions? That’s the question some of the world’s most innovative worker groups are asking. And they’re hopeful they have found a solution.

labor

The New Workers, and New Militancy, of the Seventies

Justin Miller The American Prospect
During the 1970s women and people of color were organizing their workplaces at impressive rates — they just weren’t winning. Lane Windham in her new book recounts that history and its consequences.

labor

U.S. Labor Leaders Confront Sexual Harassment in Top Ranks

Josh Eidelson Bloomberg
Union leaders say they take sexual harassment seriously. In addition to expanding staff training and counseling as needed, SEIU has established additional channels through which employees can report potential issues. At its executive council meeting in March, the AFL-CIO approved a new, stronger code of conduct and a new process for addressing issues like sexual harassment and requiring its state and local affiliates to do the same.

labor

Who Owns a Tip? Trump May Shift it to Restaurant Owners

Aimee Picchi CBS News
Tip theft and other forms of wage theft is already a serious problem, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. It estimated workers lost more than $50 billion a year in wage theft in 2014, or far more than the cost of robberies, burglaries and other property crimes.
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