Portside

Our infallible crystal ball reveals that 2022 will make workers want to holler.

The holiday season brought many of the risks and challenges of retail work to a head, from crowds and maskless customers to demanding bosses and supply chain problems.

Employees at the well-regarded firm SHoP Architects announced that they are seeking to unionize with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. If successful, they will be the first union at a prominent private-sector firm.

Starbucks corporate fought the Buffalo organizing effort. Massachusetts workers are preparing for a similar campaign by Starbucks.

Frontline workers are getting blamed for supply chain problems that are caused by the bosses & politicians. Union members say the port terminal operators are trying to to cast longshore workers in a bad light ahead of contract negotiations next year.

Amazon has reached a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board to allow its workers to organize freely and without retaliation.

UNM still challenging labor board’s decisions in court

One hundred and forty million Americans are poor or low-income in the richest nation in the history of the world. The steady growth of America’s GDP has not, in fact, been “good news for all people.”

Everyone seems to have forgotten that immigrants do things, often things that nobody else wants to do. Restaurant, supply chain, and construction work is predicated on the exploitation of immigrant labor.

It’s important to understand what the cost implications are for consumers with this lack of supply in the supply chain. It’s pure supply and demand economics.