Portside

SEIU 721, which represents 55,000 who've had no raise in five years, plans to protest county's proposed 6%-raise-over-30-months offer.

The case the Supreme Court will hear involves a South Florida greyhound track, now known as Mardi Gras Gaming, where UNITE HERE reached an agreement with the employer in 2004. The company would allow union representatives to speak to workers in non-work areas during non-work times and would provide the union with contact information for employees. It would also “remain neutral” about unionization.

Many have praised the recent AFL-CIO convention for the delegates' efforts to fundamentally change organized labor's direction and strategy. The hope is that a reinvigorated labor movement will reverse the decline in union power and forge a broad coalition that can effectively fight the rising tide of wealth and income inequality and the growing impoverishment of the working-class. The following article from the AFL-CIO's online blog highlights ten new initiatives.

The Union Makes Us Strong takes us back, and that's not at all a bad thing. There's a purity of sound here that is moving, along with a professionalism and delivers the goods. "The Union Makes Us Strong by Peter K. Siegel and Eli Smith is a wonderful collection of old favorites, enlivened by some fancy banjo, fiddle and mandolin work and by the sweet harmony of the two singers, " writes labor historian Paul Buhle.