Portside

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is pushing for 400,000 new visas for foreign workers, a demand that has been met with fierce resistance by labor unions and which could help derail an agreement between the two sides over an immigration reform bill being developed in Congress.

Just cause” protection is helpful because one of the main reasons private sector workers shy away from organizing is their fear of being fired.

Labor is in trouble which is not news to our readers. Michael Hirsch describes some of the obvious problems and some ways forward. He believes unions should have more of them against us approach. This was something Occupy Wall Street did very successfully. For a short period of time they changed the dialogue away from austerity to the needs of working period. Other ideas include community and union based electoral campaigns, workers papers, international organizing.

Thomas Perez, reported to be President Barack Obama's choice to lead the Dept. of Labor, stands to be a target of conservatives because of his unapologetic civil rights advocacy.

The battle over teachers unions has marched its way across the country. Ohio. Michigan. Wisconsin. Idaho. And now it’s in Kansas, greeted by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and his conservative allies in the Legislature.

To mark International Women's Day on 8 March, which focuses on 'violence against women', the ILO is highlighting the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace - an often subtle but disturbing form of aggression.

Today’s robots can do far more than their primitive, single-task ancestors. And there is a broad debate among economists, labor experts and companies over whether the trend will add good-paying jobs to the economy by helping firms run more efficiently or simply leave human workers out in the cold.

The AFL-CIO, along with its affiliate unions, community partners and allies, are embarking on a deep evaluation of the future for working people and the labor movement and exploring innovations for the future of worker organizing. "The basic system of worker representation is failing to meet the needs of America’s working men and women by every critical measure," said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

Student guest workers from Asia and Latin America stage strike at McDonald's in central Pennsylvania.

In recent months, regulators have demanded millions of dollars from companies that hired independent contractors to hang drywall, install cable, staff call centers, give manicures and perform other jobs in which the government said workers were really functioning as company employees.