Portside

A labor activist reflects on the United Autoworkers’ (UAW’s) crushing defeat at a Mississipi Nissan plant last week.

United Automobile Workers fails in bid to organize in southern car plant. New charges with National Labor Relations Board could prompt new vote.

UAW Files New Charges Against Company, Seeks Federal Court Order To Prevent Future Unfair Labor Practices

Phillips Seafood is a Baltimore-based company famous for its crabs. Global and US unions want to make it infamous for its treatment of low-paid women workers. Phillips moved its Indonesian production from urban to rural mini-plants in order to inhibit access to labor law protections and unionization efforts. Closer to home, the company is a major opponent of attempts to raise the minimum wage.

An investment group led by former Chicago alderman and businessman Edwin Eisendrath and the Chicago Federation of Labor recently pulled off an unusual feat when it acquired the Chicago Sun-Times. The purchase is a return to labor’s long tradition in fostering a broader public sphere.

The labour share of the overall economic pie is at a post-second world war low, which is an enormous problem in an economy that is 70 per cent dependent on consumer spending. The demise of the traditional union movement (which represents only 10.7 per cent of the American workforce today, half of what it was in the early 1980s), is one of the biggest contributors to that problem.

The Los Angeles Black Worker Center was founded seven years ago to increase access to quality jobs for African-Americans. Rather than focusing solely on job training, the Center is working to connect people with actual jobs through programs like the LA Local Hire program.

The Texas Senate has passed legislation that would end the state's practice of collecting membership dues for certain public employees who are members of labor unions and associations.

If Foxconn establishes production in Wisconsin it will be in a highly automated capital-intensive facility that would not create anywhere near the number of jobs being bandied about. CEO Terry Gou clearly stated, "Automation, software and technology innovation will be our key focus in the U.S. in the coming few years.”Here’s reality: Cyber component manufacturing with large numbers of employees has mainly occurred in low-wage, marginally regulated countries.

To regain lost wages and benefits, UFCW Local 400 used political power, working with union, community, and faith allies to win minimum wage increases and paid sick days in much of the area the union represents. The local also mobilized its membership. Conferences that brought together nearly 300 Safeway and Giant stewards were followed by mass meetings and in-store action teams. The result was a victory and a commitment to keep up the pressure.