Portside

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration is pushing for what would be the longest-ever contract with the teachers’ union: a nine-year deal that would let the city stretch out potentially huge retroactive pay increases. A nine-year deal for teachers would actually date to Nov. 1, 2009, when the union’s contract expired. But it would extend for another four and a half years — after Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, would face re-election in 2017.

Wisconsin was the first state to grant public-sector unions the right to negotiate contracts. Before Gov. Gaylord Nelson signed that law in 1959, only unionized workers in private companies had a government-protected right to bargain collectively. The Wisconsin idea soon spread around the country. Act 10 is an about-face, and Gov. Walker and his Republican supporters see it as a tough-minded strategy that other states can follow. History repeating itself, if in reverse.

Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee are currently voting on union representation. While the company has remained neutral but national right-wing organizations and Republicans have been very vocal in calling for a no vote. A victory for the workers and the UAW would have major implications for union organizing in the South.

1600 Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee to vote on unionization February 12 through 14. It appears that both Volkswagen and the UAW are supporting unionization. This is bringing howls of outrage from right-wing southern politicians. A yes vote would have be seen as a tremendous victory for all those trying to organize in the south.

Anti-labor forces in Tennessee and elsewhere are leading a fight against both Volkswagen and the UAW to prevent unionization. These right-wing forces see a successful unionization drive as opening the door to the UAW in other southern states.

As America’s labor unions have lost members and clout, new types of worker advocacy groups have sprouted nationwide, and they have started to get on businesses’ nerves — protesting low wages at Capital Grille restaurants and demonstrating outside Austin City Hall in Texas against giving Apple tax breaks. Now, business groups and powerful lobbyists, heavily backed by the restaurant industry, are mounting an aggressive campaign against them.

New York City Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio and municipal unions have a major problem. After going 4 years without a contract under Mayor Bloomberg the question of a new contract and how much retroactive pay is included is front and center for the incoming Mayor and the municipal unions.

'... how are we going to translate that energy to work on the ground, to spread that energy through the locals?'

Volkswagen is working with the United Automobile Workers at its Chattanooga, Tenn., assembly plant on how to unionize the plant and create a German-style works council there, the president of the labor union said on Friday.

The Workers Defense Project, founded in 2002, has emerged as one of the nation's most creative organizations for immigrant workers. Its focus is the Texas construction industry, which employs more than 600,000 workers. It is one of 225 worker centers nationwide, aiding immigrant workers. Workers Centers show what is possible, and may help infuse new life into the labor movement.