Portside

Locomotive builders in Erie, Pennsylvania, are rallying today to demand that General Electric stop the transfer of nearly a third of the plant’s jobs to a non-union, lower-wage factory in Texas.

Yesterday, workers at dozens of Seattle fast food restaurants went on strike against poverty wages. This marks the nation's seventh work stoppage by fast food employees in the last eight weeks. The strikers are demanding a raise to $15 an hour and the right to organize unions without retaliation or intimidation.

Organizers expect retail employees in more cities to join the work stoppage, which follows the country’s first-ever coordinated Walmart store strikes last October, and a high-profile Black Friday walkout November 23. Like Black Friday’s, today’s strike is being framed by the union-backed labor group OUR Walmart as a response to retaliation against worker-activists.

From stopping wage theft to organizing carwasheros, victories have come from meeting workers where they live.