Portside

Unions are still fighting for several key policies that have yet to be achieved. The next president could determine where labor regulations and the economy go from here. Labor unions hope the next president will focus on the minimum wage, healthcare, immigration and trade, among other important policies.

If anyone were looking for further evidence that the AFL-CIO remains unprepared to accept the science of climate change, and unwilling to join with the effort being made by all of the major labour federations of the world to address the crisis, the fight over the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) provides only the most recent case in point. Progressive labour must, however, develop its own vision of an energy future.

Even as Trump brags about how much he loves the working class, his greed tells another story.

As labor battles are traditionally viewed, making concessions on salary and benefits would have to be considered a defeat. But the faculty union regards the result of the strike as a clear-cut victory, a victory that preserved what many regard as one of the best university faculty contracts in the country.

The system is rigged — by an evolving form of capitalism that undermines genuine ‘free trade’. Rising inequality is fomenting anger and desperation. A revolt is coming, but its direction is uncertain. Some fall prey to neo-fascist appeals of Donald Trump or Marine Le Pen. They will not be stopped by scorn alone. We need a progressive alternative focused on building a new income distribution system for the citizenry, not for the oligarchy.

The major issues are health coverage, pensions and work rules. Pensions rankle TWU members because theirs don't increase if a worker makes more than $50,000 a year, meaning a union member will receive no more than $30,000 a year in pension payments after retirement even if they earned more than $50,000 when they retired. By contrast, managers with Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority] have no pension caps.

Rank-and-File Union Members Challenge AFL-CIO Leadership's Support for Pipeline. A delegation from Labor For Standing Rock, comprised of rank-and-file workers and union members to mobilize growing labor support for the First Nation's fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline at the Standing Rock camp the weekend of October 29.

Cohn became the Trumps' lawyer and filed a $100,000 million countersuit against the government for defaming the Trumps. But in this case Cohn's bluster didn't work. The Justice Dept. had solid evidence of discrimination, and Cohn had nothing. The Trumps eventually settled and agreed to make apartments available to minority renters.

In Ohio, United Steelworkers of America and the American Federation of State County and Municipal Workers rally in support of Secretary Hillary Clinton.

An estimated 60.7 percent of the world’s workers labor in the informal economy, without legal or social protections. While the impact of working without the freedom to organize is most dire in the world’s poorest countries, U.S. workers are not an exception to the types of labor rights abuses the described in a United Nations Report.