Portside

The California Nurses Association is calling on more than 2,400 nurses to strike Providence Health and Services hospitals in Santa Monica and Torrance and at Kaiser Permanente’s Los Angeles Medical Center over staffing levels and retention rates.

The new co-op, Green Taxi, will have a fleet of hybrid or high-efficiency vehicles, and will offer a ride-hailing app.The drivers aren’t going it alone. The Communications Workers of America Local 7777 union is playing a key role in helping them break into Denver’s heavily regulated taxi industry.

The 120 workers at Crown Metal Packaging have now been on strike 19 months resisting a union-busting employer aiming to slash wages and cut pensions. They have been supported by the international solidarity of Workers Uniting, the global union formed by North America's United Steel Workers and Britain's Unite.

The Economic Institute reports "2014 Continues a 35-Year Trend of Broad-based Wage Stagnation." Those at the top are the only ones to have a real increase in pay.

The GDL union, which represents about one in 10 of railway operator Deutsche Bahn's nearly 200,000 workers, wants a 5-percent pay rise and a reduction in the working week to 37 hours from 39. It is also fighting for the right to negotiate on behalf of other employees including train stewards.

Last week actor Alec Baldwin sent out tweets bemoaning the "Fight fir $15" protests in New York City that he claimed made his life inconvenient. New York Times columnist Rachel Swarns responds to Baldwin.

United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), the second largest teachers union in the country, has reached a tentative agreement with LA Unified, according to an announcement issued by UTLA late last night. The new contract would includes a 10 percent raise over two years, likely bringing to an end the threat of a strike that has been in the air since the summer.

Poor wages, precarious jobs, absence of benefits, no social security and denial of union rights are the patterns of the global fast food industry which relies on the labor of millions of workers employed by a few giant coporations operating under the names of different brands.

Under Trumka, labor has sought to extend its power by alliances, cooperating with African-American groups, immigrant groups, environmental groups and others as well as car wash workers and day laborers seeking to organizers. He points to the wave of Fight for $15 protests scheduled for April 15 as an example of a new way workers are flexing their muscles.

Low-wage workers cannot live on their current wages. The current movement for $15 an hour is motivated by that fact.