Portside

Negotiations between BART and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 and Service Employees International Union Local 1021 began months ago, but the two sides remained tens of millions of dollars apart on wages, pensions and health care benefits last week.

The fast food strikes could be the embryo of a new labor movement that challenges the power of organized money and the skyrocketing inequality that has made the American middle class an endangered species.

The Workers Defense Project, founded in 2002, has emerged as one of the nation's most creative organizations for immigrant workers.

Today, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) released a new report: "ALEC at 40: Turning Back the Clock on Prosperity and Progress." The report identifies and analyzes 466 American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) bills introduced in 2013.

The 1.3 million member United Food and Commercial Workers Union will rejoin the AFL-CIO after an 8 year hiatus with the Change to Win labor federation. The UFCW will become the AFL-CIO's largest private sector affiliate and bring the labor federation's membership to about 13 million.