Portside

Now, with vaccinations on the rise and summer approaching, a lot of employers are going back to business as usual. Workers have leverage at this moment.

The King County Labor Council once welcomed the Seattle Police Officers Guild. As protests continue, it’s reconsidering.

Dozens of workers in Byhalia, Mississippi who work for one of the country's leading producers of cereal and baked goods voted Wednesday in favor of joining the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, known as UFCW.

No Evil Foods created products like El Zapatista and Comrade Cluck, but workers say its conduct doesn’t live up to its leftist branding.

Labor unions see an opportunity to organize one of the fastest-growing industries.

It was clear to us in the Justice@Smithfield campaign that you could not win relying solely on worker meetings and house visits or relying on solidarity in the community. We had to had to build visible activity inside the plant. Having workers see one another in collective action, not being fired and even winning things is how the union takes on a living presence.

Phillips Seafood is a Baltimore-based company famous for its crabs. Global and US unions want to make it infamous for its treatment of low-paid women workers. Phillips moved its Indonesian production from urban to rural mini-plants in order to inhibit access to labor law protections and unionization efforts. Closer to home, the company is a major opponent of attempts to raise the minimum wage.

To regain lost wages and benefits, UFCW Local 400 used political power, working with union, community, and faith allies to win minimum wage increases and paid sick days in much of the area the union represents. The local also mobilized its membership. Conferences that brought together nearly 300 Safeway and Giant stewards were followed by mass meetings and in-store action teams. The result was a victory and a commitment to keep up the pressure.

A consumer pressure campaign against labor abuses in the chicken-processing industry has produced some initial results, with a detailed pledge this week from Tyson Foods to build a better workplace for its 95,000 employees.