Portside

Republicans in Virginia have proposed a referendum in November to strengthen the state's existing open shop laws. In this, an opportunity presents itself that labor unions must take. Our goal should not simply be to defeat the proposal: it should be a realignment of the conversation surrounding the role in labor unions in Virginia’s—and America’s—political economy.

Can some of Trump's white working class supporters switch to vote Democrat. The author believes this is possible.

The fact that your company gives you good free lunches and shuttles to work and nice paycheck does not change the fact that you could get more by negotiating together, as a union. Anyone smart enough to get a job at Google is smart enough to grasp these facts.

Answers remain scarce as Canadian labour grapples with Uber, Airbnb and the 'gig economy.'

If the labor movement must invest in politics, it would be wisest to do so at the community/local/state level. It is there, our ‘laboratories of public policy’, where the labor movement can have the most positive impact on the lives of working people.

Aside from the fact that unions seldom use their most powerful weapon, the strike, and aside from the fact that even fewer unions ever mobilize and organize their biggest asset, the members, our biggest problem in bargaining is that labor’s financial analysis of corporations only touches the surface. It misses the vast bulk of corporate hidden wealth. Labor economist Les Leopold explains how companies hide their wealth in his new book, Runaway Inequality.

"Finance capital supports war and chaos and strives towards it, because it can use chaos to seize national assets. In my opinion, our mafia-like capitalism cooperates and collaborates with foreign capital, which does not care for our sovereignty and prosperity," explains Maziyar Gilaninejhad from the Iranian metal workers and mechanics union in a interview in which he also describes the repression workers in Iran face.

The National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen Garcia said her members helped elect Secretary Hillary Clinton in various states. She also blasted "hateful rhetoric" from Donald Trump.

Thousands of attorneys perform tasks so routine that some believe they should get the same protections as the rest of the hourly workforce.

Despite a crackdown on labor activists there, Chinese workers continue to strike. The strike wave continues to grow, and strikes are not only in the private sector or in companies that manufacture for export. Last year saw a large wave of teacher strikes, and as this article shows, nurses in public hospitals are also striking.