Portside

Hillary Clinton’s endorsement Friday by the country’s largest public employee union marks a turning point in her nomination battle as she shores up support from a labor movement that flirted in recent months with Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden.

As public worker union growth ran into the realities of an increasingly conservative national climate, effective advocates for labor, like Victor Gotbaum -- who passed away on April 5 --like many of his peers, proved unable to find a way to keep renewing union power.

Republican Governor Bruce Raynor launches ferocious attack on organized labor in Illinois. The Governor has aimed his attack against both public and private sector workers. This goes beyond Wisconsin Governor Walker whose attack was mainly aimed at public sector employees.

Virtually all labor organizations face the expanded challenge of recruiting and maintaining members in already unionized workplaces where the decision to provide financial support for the union has, for better or worse, become voluntary.

New leadership, a Membership Action Team organizing plan, and a 22 month contract campaign that included two strikes, produce a strong bargaining agreement covering 22,000 hospital and campus workers at the University of California. The new contract offers protections against subcontracting, limits on temporary workers, wage increases, and "strong benefits," among other items.

Home Care workers in the state of Vermont have overwhelmingly voted to be represented by AFSCME.

Once again, Wisconsin is ground zero for the future of the labor movement — the catalyst for a new, disassembled, fitting-and-starting labor movement.

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.