Portside

Zephyr Teachout and the Working Families Party plan to release a report entitled "Corruption in Education: The Hedge Fund Takeover of New York's Schools." The Working Families Party endorsed Governor Cuomo but now it plans to fight him on policy issues. A Cuomo source accuses them of supporting the teachers union.

Food service workers at Harvard are members of UNITE-HERE Local 26. After two years, they earn $21.73 per hour on average, while for many years the DoubleTree hotel in Cambridge owned by the university non-union housekeepers earned only about $15 an hour. Last year, housekeepers at the hotel mounted a push to join Local 26 as well. Hilton, which owns the DoubleTree chain bumped salaries to $18 an hour— but has so far managed to avoid a unionized workforce.

Fast food workers plan another nationwide strike on December 4. Ricky Eisenberg provides some background on the campaign.

Hundreds of Los Angeles teachers have been put on leave and in limbo. It’s been called “teacher jail,” and it’s not far off from the “rubber rooms” New York City tabloids have made famous. In both places, the tactic is used to scapegoat teachers and unions.

Twenty years after the first living-wage law was passed in Baltimore, the campaign’s lead organizer warns that the model has been watered down.

Wal-Mart, Target, Macy's, Radio Shack and other retailers are requiring their low-paid workers to report. Why? There is nothing essential about buying gewgaws, gizmos and garments from these mass marketers of consumer excess that warrant them forcing their employees to give up their family meals on this one day of Thanksgiving.

Madison teachers recertify their union. Governor Scott Walker's anti-labor legislation requires 51percent of voters to vote for their union every year.

Labor unions issue statements on Ferguson.

Just in time for Black Friday and the holiday shopping season, the measure —aimed at giving retail staffers more predictable schedules and access to extra hours —will make the worker-friendly city even friendlier.

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