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Philadelphia Orchestra Walks Out on Opening Night

Michael Cooper New York Times
The strike — called on the same day that musicians on the other side of Pennsylvania at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra walked out on strike — came as the Philadelphia’s players sought to recover some of the pay they lost to concessions during the recent bankruptcy.

Building Alliances to End Gender-Based Violence at Work

Tula Connell Solidarity Center AFL-CIO
There is a specific set of behaviors that constitute gender-based violence at work that includes sexual violence, verbal abuse, threats of violence and bullying. A meeting in Brazil sponsored by the International Trade Union Confederation and the Solidarity Center discussed a campaign to shape a worker-driven International Labor Organization standard ending gender-based violence at work, based about successful initiatives by local worker organizations.

Waivers Can Fix Out-of-Date Federal Labor Laws

Andrew Stern & Eli Lehrer Washington Examiner
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".

Volkswagen Faces Bumpy Road in Challenge to 'Micro-Union'

Daniel Wiessner and Bernie Woodall Reuters
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.

Who Will Win the Just Born Game of Chicken?

Anthony Salamone, Scott Kraus The Morning Call
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.

AFL-CIO Constituency Groups Stand with Native Americans to Stop the Dakota Access Pipeline

Labor Coalition for Community Action Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance
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 Invisble Workforce: Death, Discrimination and Despair in N.J.'s Temp Industry

Kelly Heyboer NJ.com
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.

When Labor Laws Left Farm Workers Behind — and Vulnerable to Abuse

Kamala Kelkar PBS NewsHour
“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.”