Portside

Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis successfully tapped into the wrath of frustrated members and took on Mayor Rahm Emanuel last September when she led the city's first teachers strike in 25 years. On Tuesday, a group of union members said Lewis didn't leverage the strike to get enough from the district — including a guarantee not to close schools — and announced a slate of candidates that will try to unseat Lewis and her team in a regular election set for May

Foxconn has announced that workers will be able to vote for union representatives at their factories. The plan, according to news reports, is to allow workers to elect “junior workers” to represent them in a union leadership structure historically dominated by management and officials.

"In Brazil and India, machines are already starting to do primary care, because there’s no labor to do it,” says Robert Kocher, an internist, “They may be better than doctors. . ." The rising costs of health care, an aging population in the United States and other nations, are spurring investments into the development of sophisticated machines that will be able to perform tasks now done by highly skilled workers. What may be the impact on the healthcare workforce?

Twin Cities SEIU Local 26 uses other groups and individuals to help its organizing drive.

Is the U.S. a less upwardly mobile society than Britain a century ago?