Portside

Cuba’s commitment of 461 doctors and nurses to combat Ebola in West Africa is the largest single-country offer of healthcare workers to date to combat the crisis. But, this is not the first example of Cuba’s “unprecedented medical solidarity.” Cuba has also sent medical teams to assist the peoples of Guatemala, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Haiti in this past decade. And Cuba has a lot to teach the world about disaster relief and epidemic control.

At the end of each day, all the workers were required to pass through a security clearance checkpoint where they had to remove their keys, wallets, and belts, pass through a metal detector, and submit to being searched. The whole process could take up to 25 minutes. Should these workers be paid for the time they spend being searched?

For the very first time, the Left Party may lead a coalition -- by the narrowest of margins -- with the Social Democrats and Greens that governs a German state. But forming that coalition would require difficult compromise and reversals on the part of all the coalition partners.

Isaac Asimov Asks, “How Do People Get New Ideas?”

“The flu is a much greater threat to the American public than Ebola is,” says a public health expert.

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have to grapple with free speech and hate speech—and they haven’t done a good job.

You Don't Own Me (music video). Vaccine Delivery: The Last Mile. Behind the Scenes: Big Beverage. "We Want a Co-op!" Google VP Leaps From Stratosphere.

Despite being a fundamental human right enshrined in international law, the right to strike is certainly not guaranteed for all workers. In fact, transport workers are one of the groups increasingly being excluded from the right to strike by way of outright bans or public service, essential services or minimum services requirements that severely limit that right.

The southern New Mexico mining town of Santa Rita no longer exists, even as a ghost town, except in the memories of Terry Humble and others who lived there. In September, another vestige of Santa Rita disappeared when workers at the Chino Mine voted 236-83 to decertify a 72-year-old union celebrated for its heroic struggle to improve the lives of Hispanic miners and immortalized by the 1954 movie “Salt of the Earth.”

“Kaiser has attacked its own workers and its core clients at the same time,” Local 5 Secretary-Treasurer Eric Gill says. “Union groups have been its core constituency,” but now they’re facing double-digit rate hikes in Hawaii.