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$15 per Hour or Bust: An Appraisal of the Higher Wages Movement

Stephanie Luce New Labor Forum
In the last few years we have seen an unprecedented number of cities set citywide minimum wages. States - even fully red states - are also raising wages, and many are indexing those to inflation. Minimum wage and living wage campaigns are on the agenda in many other countries as well. Where did this movement for higher wages come from? To what extent is it helping build worker movements and improve workers' lives?

AFL-CIO Delays CA Hospital Vote: What Happened to Employee Free Choice?

Steve Early Beyond Chron
When workers feel collectively trapped in poorly performing unions that do not properly represent them, the most union-minded among them often believe that changing unions is their only hope. If switching to another union is not a viable option because of AFL rules or incumbent union manipulation of Labor Board procedures, the result will be more workplace anger, frustration, and resentment.

Baltimore: Police Indicted and A Workers View

The six Baltimore police officers involved in the arrest of Freddie Gray - who died after being injured in police custody - have been charged criminally, State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced Friday. "Where are the jobs for the young people some so swiftly label "thugs?"" Len Shindel worked at Bethlehem Steel's Sparrows Point Plant in Baltimore for 30 years and for most of that time was an activist and USWA representative.

The “Longue durée” of the Québec Spring

Pierre Beaudet The Bullet
A “coalition of coalitions” -- comprising unions, students, and several other sectors, even including elected municipal officials -- has coordinated movements of protest over the past years and is leading toward a great day of action on May Day. Beyond that several actions are planned for over the course of the summer eventually leading to an important workers’ strike next fall.

Labor Union Membership in the U.S. is Down to Just 11%

Quentin Fottrell MarketWatch
Some 11% of all wage and salary workers in 2014 were in a union — down from 22% in 1983 after peaking at nearly 35% in 1954, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The fall in union membership is a significant contributor to the rise in inequality since the 1970s, says John Schmitt, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a nonprofit left-of-center think tank in Washington, D.C., although there’s no single cause of the economic inequality.

Nurses Authorize Two-Day Strike of Kaiser, Providence

MARNI USHEROFF Los Angeles Business Journal
The California Nurses Association is calling on more than 2,400 nurses to strike Providence Health and Services hospitals in Santa Monica and Torrance and at Kaiser Permanente’s Los Angeles Medical Center over staffing levels and retention rates.