Portside

Bernie Sanders wins backing of South Carolina AFL-CIO EBoard; Negotiations with General Electric continues with GE demanding concessions from workers; A judge rules that an Uber driver is an Uber employee, not a freelancer!

Nobody expects an internship to make one rich — but for many, the entire experience has become simply unattainable.

We are not making the progress that Dr. King called us to achieve in the 1960s. It is time to declare once and for all: Black lives matter: on the streets, and on the job too.

Cries of “this means war!” echoed throughout Chicago’s financial district this Tuesday as teachers demonstrated against the Board of Education ahead of union contract negotiations this summer.

The vote on "Trade Adjustment Act" portion of legislation to allow President Obama to "fast track" the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), failed because Republicans were opposed to giving workers who lose their jobs due to the TPP any additional aid. "Liberal Democrats" voted to kill the TAA bill in order to stop the passage of the TPP, in a Republican controlled House of Representatives.

Sanders has been a strong voice encouraging workers to build unions, opposing excessive corporate power and economic inequality; and for measures to curb climate change, notes the UE General Executive Board in a statement urging its members and locals to consider participating in his campaign. The statement also urged Sanders his to offers a stronger critique of US interventionist foreign policy.

Pittsburgh Labor Board rules in favor of Duquesne adjuncts and rejects the university's religious objections. The vote for the union took place in 2012.

With 1.3 million U.S. employees—more than the population of Vermont and Wyoming combined—Walmart is by far the nation’s largest private-sector employer. It’s also one of the nation’s most aggressive anti-union companies, with a long history of trying to squelch unionization efforts. “People are scared to vote for a union because they’re scared their store will be closed,” said Barbara Gertz, an overnight Walmart stocker in Denver.

The still fledgling campaign focuses on organizing to raise wages and delays question of union structure. No one seems sure about the shape of a fast-food union. Many formations are possible. Since wages and other employment laws differ by city and state, one could envision local or regional contracts that establish a basic compensation structure, benefits and freedom from arbitrary firing. A more ambitious version would be national in scope: a framework agreement...

Leaders of the union representing 18,000 nurses at 14 private hospitals in New York City said Wednesday the nurses could go on strike over staffing levels if negotiations with management fail. "We need more nurses," said Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, president of the New York State Nurses Association. "Our patients' well-being, their very lives, depend on real staffing standards that enable us to simply do our jobs, to deliver safe, quality care."