Portside

Personal care attendants will see their wages increase to $15 per hour in Massachusetts, while fast food workers in New York State may soon see a large pay increase as well.

Cal Winslow lays out the context for the breathtaking admissions of Dave Regan, President of SEIU UHW, regarding the forced transfer of 70,000 long-term care workers from UHW into the newly formed SEIU Local 2015.

Public sector unions are playing defense. They need a plan to convince employees to join (or stay in) the union. But they're operating in a difficult terrain, after years of cuts and concessions.

Worker participation does not consist in attendance at purely formal meetings but rather in taking part in real discussions about wages, training, conditions at work. We use no shock therapy. Changes cannot be decreed, they are first debated by all the workers, by the whole population. We are proud of Cuban workers' capacity for resistance, for creativity. We are aware of the issues at stake and we are confident. We, Cubans, are not a bit afraid!

In an upset victory, San Francisco educators have elected a new union president who promises to empower members, take on standardized testing, and back struggles for affordable housing.

The Chicago Teachers Union has gained a reputation for organizing alongside community groups over broader social justice issues of race and class. Now, from Saint Paul to Los Angeles, more teachers unions are following their lead and embracing a similar progressive model. That model includes building developing relationships with community groups and other unions and taking broader issues that impact their students’ lives to the bargaining table.

Many workers are not only fighting for the $15 an hour and a union that first drew them to the campaign. They’re fighting for a better world. They see their actions as re-directing the course of history, as building a future for their children and grandchildren, and as helping workers not only in other fast food outlets but also in many other jobs and industries.

The incidence of involuntary part-time work surged during the Great Recession and has stayed unusually high during the recovery. This may reflect more labor market slack than is captured by the unemployment rate alone. This suggests that involuntary part-time work may remain significantly above its pre-recession level as the labor market continues to recover.

Chicago students stands up for teacher they say was fired for being a union activist.

Domestic work is one of the few areas of work available for unskilled women workers in India -- the overwhelming majority of whom are illiterate or educated only up to the primary level. They frequently work seven days a week, enduring poverty wages [despite often working in multiple households], no paid leave, zero maternity or social protection, violence and unhygienic living and working conditions.