Portside

A Supreme Court case to be heard this month could deal another body blow to the embattled U.S. labor movement. The case, Harris v. Quinn, offers the court’s conservative majority a chance to make so-called right to work the law of the land for millions of public sector workers.

Wal-Mart arrests could fuel "A New Political Movement of the Disenfranchised," Florida Congressman Alan Grayson tells Salon. The Congressman questions Obama's praise for Wal-Mart: "What has Wal-Mart given the president in return?"

Puget Sound workers are latest to join the strike wave, with weeks to go before a Black Friday showdown

Cleaning and concessions workers in federal buildings will protest their taxpayer-funded poverty jobs. Those planning to strike include workers who serve food or wash floors at Union Station (owned by the Department of Transportation), Smithsonian Museums (owned by the federal Smithsonian Institution), and the Ronald Reagan Building and Old Post Office (owned by the General Services Administration).

Service Employees International Union President Mary Kay Henry believes fast food workers will massively increase their campaign within a few weeks.

Some warehouse workers in California will strike Walmart today. They are protesting alleged retaliation for exposing safety risks.

As the AFL-CIO prepares for its upcoming national convention, the issue of non-traditional workers' organizations looms heavy on the agenda. As so-called alternative labor organizations - a.k.a. "alt-labor" - have multiplied, the question of funding organizations and activities without a traditional negotiated dues check-off system is being debated.

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.

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.

Breaking: 500 low-wage workers expected to stop working from a dozen chains on Wednesday morning