Portside

The debate this election cycle about how to shore up the American middle class and the longer-term worry that automation will chip away at the labor market both miss a more proximate and pressing reality: knowledge work, including tech jobs, are already being shipped overseas. What happened to manufacturing jobs a generation ago is now being repeated in the knowledge economy, linking the fates of the professional class and the working class together.

Our goal should be a living wage, not zero job loss.

Jane McAlevey is a union organizer and a critic of what is generally thought of as the U.S. “labor reform” movement. In this review of her article, I separate her criticism of labor—which I think has merit—from its attribution to Saul Alinsky—which I find without merit.

The Chicago Teachers Union’s strike today is a challenge to the rest of labor to break anti-union rules.

“Which is worse: a poor, uneducated young man who sells drugs because he sees no other opportunity, or a multimillionaire executive, at the pinnacle of his power, who decides to subject his workers to a daily game of Russian roulette? ...

DC37 Executive Director Henry Garrido announced that his union has endorsed Secretary Hillary Clinton. DC37 is the largest municipal union in New York City with 121,000 members and 55,000 retirees and is affiliated with American Federation of State, County and Municipal Emlpyees which has already endorsed her.

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing workers to refuse to pay the fees would have been the culmination of a decades-long campaign by a group of prominent conservative foundations aimed at weakening unions that represent teachers and other public employees. Tuesday’s deadlock denied them that victory, but it set no precedent and left the door open for further challenges once the Supreme Court is back at full strength.

Just in time for the 2016 Labor Notes Conference, the Chicago Teachers Union is planning a one-day strike and citywide day of action April 1. The union’s governing body, the House of Delegates, gave its stamp of approval to the action last night.

The Rapid and city engaged in “Witch-Hunt” to silence students, workers

The Supreme court ruled that worker class action suits can use statistical date to prove their case. This was not only a major victory for Tyson workers but also for all workers.