Portside

"Between the fumbled response to the coronavirus pandemic, the job loss that rivals the Great Depression and the daily rhetoric that serves only to divide working people—this president has struck out with the Machinists Union.”

This week, the 70,000 member Rochester AFL-CIO Labor Council became the first regional AFL-CIO body in the United States to call for a General Strike if Trump does not respect the outcome of this year’s election.

We need to bring back fairness to an economy plagued by an imbalance of power between workers and employers. At a time when our nation is engaged in a vital conversation about economic justice, we need to make union membership a civil right.

In 2017, President Donald Trump and the Wisconsin GOP struck a deal with Foxconn that promised to turn Southeastern Wisconsin into a tech manufacturing powerhouse. Three years later, the factory — and the jobs — don’t exist, and probably never will.

The expiration of stimulus benefits has thrown millions into poverty, even as the unemployment crisis continues to hammer workers. There’s a deep sickness at the heart of the American economy.

What if the key to union growth isn’t simply more “smart organizing” but an entirely different strategic approach?

Two extensive union programs—one long established, one new—are focusing on swaying working-class voters who, like most Americans, don’t belong to unions.

Stranded seafarers and port workers are facing physical and mental exhaustion, trapped on shipboard since the pandemic began. They do not have access to shore leave; some have been denied emergency medical treatment.

In Toledo, Joe Biden lashed President Trump as an out-of-touch plutocrat who has repeatedly betrayed union workers, while playing up his own Irish Catholic, middle-class background.

Union leaders hope Biden will be able to enact policies to reinvigorate the labor movement, bringing in more members, money, and political influence while dramatically expanding collective bargaining rights and protections from workplace abuse.