Portside

Moderators Note: This Portside Labor moderator does not agree with the following proposal by Andy Stern and Eli Lehrer. I do believe that the left in the labor movement needs to know what schemes conservatives are proposing, especially when it comes from a former "labor leader".

Trump's comment about Alicia Machado was not only a sexist slur against Latinas but also an attack on the the many millions of individuals who work at low paid jobs.

The German automaker's U.S. subsidiary earlier this month brought a case in a Washington, D.C.-based federal appeals court seeking to overturn a vote by a group of skilled trade workers at its Chattanooga, Tennessee, assembly plant to join the United Auto Workers. The dispute is a high-profile test of whether unions, an seek new members by targeting smaller groups, rather than organizing whole plants or companies as in the past.

400 workers represented by the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union have been on strike at the Just Born candy factory since September 7. Just Born's hard-line stance on hiring replacement workers could have both short- and long-term consequences for the company, including the need to rebuild shattered trust among employees and the possibility of fending off lawsuits from the workers hired to replace them, experts said.

Tennessee’s infamous anti-union union is fading away for lack of members. Will Volkswagen’s rationale for keeping out a real union crumble with it?

We remain committed to fighting the corporate interests that back this project and name this pipeline “a pipeline of corporate greed.” We challenge the labor movement to strategize on how to better engage and include Native people and other marginalized populations into the labor movement as a whole.

The business of providing temps to factories and warehouses is booming in New Jersey, which has one of the highest concentration of temps in the country . But New Jersey's "temp towns" have a dark side. Workers say this sector of the temporary employment industry is rife with mistreatment. They complain about low pay or not being paid at all, rampant racial and sexual discrimination, unsafe working conditions and a system that seems to exploit them at every turn.

“The original, Southern desire to preserve an exploited, economically deprived non-white agricultural labor force pinned to the bottom of the social and economic hierarchy continues to manifest itself full force,” Law Professor Juan Perea of Loyola University said. “The only difference today is now it’s brown and black people.”

A Globe investigation found that these workers, eager for a paycheck, are often paid below the prevailing wage and illegally, in cash. They are also the most likely to be subjected to unsafe work conditions, without insurance to cover medical bills or lost pay if they get hurt. And the unscrupulous contractors who employ them are too seldom caught and penalized.

Between Trumka’s DAPL endorsement and the Fraternal Order of Police’s endorsement of Donald Trump for president, this week has shown a stark divide between parts of American labor and today’s social movements.