Portside

If you have not already heard, we want to let you know that the International is forcing a vote on Boeing’s latest proposal on January 3, 2014. Due to the massive takeaways, your District 751 leadership is united with a recommendation that you reject this proposal. You need to look at the facts of the economic destruction you would have to live under for the next 11 years, without any opportunity to change any provisions of the contract.

Rising inequality means rising distrust: A study published last year by the National Academy of Sciences suggests that the upper classes are more likely to engage in what has traditionally been considered unethical behavior. . . Economic inequality, political inequality, and an inequality-promoting legal system all mutually reinforce one another. . . As always, it is the poor and the unconnected who suffer most from this, and who are the most repeatedly deceived.

Raising the floor for our lowest-paid workers is an absolute necessity, and continued victories in this area should be a priority for workers everywhere. However, these victories are not enough by themselves. For community-labor coalitions to reach their full potential, they must go beyond the political agenda that Richard Trumka outlined prior to the AFL-CIO’s convention. They must also be able to defend the gains that unionized workers have already won.

In the Brazilian state of Pará, an army of 25,000 workers is building the world’s 3rd largest hydroelectric plant, a controversial construction project –because of the dam’s low efficiency, its environmental impact and its effects on the Indians, riverbank-dwellers and the inhabitants of Altamira. Folha’s reporters spent 3 weeks in the region to put together the most comprehensive coverage –with 24 videos, 55 pictures, and 18 infographics (see links for full graphics).

Scores of school worker unions mustered enough member votes in this year's re-certification elections to go on representing the employees in wage negotiations, according to data state labor relations officials released Thursday.