Portside

Just once a year we appeal to you to contribute to make it possible to continue this work. Please help. And because information is power, in addition to addressing the Big Picture, we are always trying to make what we present easy to read. It's been an extraordinary year. A year of unparalleled dangers, which we won't dwell on, as you know them well.

At WNYC, predatory and bullying behavior thrives in a workplace that has a shadow workforce afraid to speak up.

As the 50th anniversary of MLK Jr.'s Poor People's Campaign approaches, organizers want to take up King's mantle to "unite the bottom of this country, to bring about real change, to shift the narrative that is demonizing people for the problems they're facing and to build power from the bottom up," says campaign co-chair Dr. Liz Theoharis. Sharmini Peries of The Real News interviews Dr. Theoharis.

The Economic Policy Institute estimates that under the Trump administration’s proposed rule, employers would pocket nearly $6 billion in tips earned by tipped workers each year.

Walmart workers will not be charged interest if they opt to obtain their wages in advance. But getting paid early, while it may solve an emergency cash shortage, will leave the workers with less money on payday.

Amazon has become a symbol of the new economy in Italy and the unions are determined to make these new workplaces, union fortresses. While Italian labor law has many advantages compared to our own, patient worker based organizing remains the fundamental building block of organizing.

"This action indicates an intent to appease employers who want every tool possible to defeat workers’ efforts to form a union, instead of ensuring the fairness of the union representation process," said Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia, the top Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee.

Information is power. Our mission at Portside Labor is to seek out and to provide information that empowers you -- that empowers the left. Every day we search hundreds of sources to connect you with the most interesting, striking and useful material.

In an echo of national worker's rights movements such as Fight for $15 and OUR Walmart, New Orleans hospitality workers are coming together in an attempt to rearrange the building blocks of their industry. Both on their own and with the support of a union, workers are becoming their own advocates, in an effort to — as Marlene Patrick-Cooper, the local organizing director for the UNITE HERE union, often says — "turn poverty jobs into middle-class jobs."

The left often falls victim to the myth that globalization and migration pose big threats to jobs and wages. This is a mistake. International migration is high, but not significantly so. And the idea that labor market competition can be overcome by raising borders, defending the “nation,” and excluding immigrants is a Sozialismus der dummen Kerle [a socialism of chumps, of numpties]. New movements must challenge the left's stubborn embrace of the "national."