Portside

Newsroom employees at The Los Angeles Times are trying to form a union, setting up a potential clash with the newspaper’s parent company, Tronc. Cost-cutting measures, including sweeping layoffs, have agitated the staff. Last year, Tronc instituted an abrupt change to the vacation policy that effectively eliminated accrued vacation days, according to several employees interviewed.

To keep changing our country in the right direction we should learn the right lessons from that terrible war. Unfortunately, Burns and Novick have thrown up roadblocks to that happening which we will have to overcome.

The Mexican workers reached a settlement that obligates their employer to address complaints.

Seven of the biggest olive oil manufacturers in the US have been cutting their products with cheaper, inferior oils (such as sunflower oil or canola oil) in order to minimize the cost of production. This prompted the University of California to carry out studies on 124 imported brands of extra virgin olive oil, and they found that over 70% of the samples failed the test.

A number of authors are writing about the coming end of capitalism. But how will the end come about, and what will post-capitalism look like? Paul Mason's optimistic view of the liberatory potential of info-tech may be misguided.

Given the public sector is the largest employer of African-Americans, and recognizing their substantial and traditional involvement in unions — Black workers are more likely to belong to a union than any other racial group — such anti-union campaigns as Right to Work have particular implications for African-Americans.

The new Star Trek spin-off passes the Bechdel test under a minute into the series premiere.

What has remained is the National Labor Relation Board’s (NLRB) position that Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) protects workers’ substantive rights to join together in class actions.

Rosie Flores, a young Latina poet from Los Angeles, speaks to the cultural differences that surround daily life. “Roses are red and we are brown,” she writes, “…we didn’t cross the border the border crossed us.”

The changes come at a time when there's growing concern for hourly workers. Thousands of workers have staged protests to call attention to their financial struggles and to fight for hourly pay of $15. The November election of a Republican-controlled Congress dampened hopes of an increase in the $7.25-an-hour federal minimum wage. But advocates have continued to press for boosts on the state and local level.