Portside

More and more unions and union members are making the link between climate change, worker's rights, and working class quality of life issues, as demonstrated yesterday in the People's Climate March.

United Teachers Los Angeles opens its annual Leadership Conference today, and strike talk will be a prominent theme.

“Sharing economy” companies like Uber shift risk from corporations to workers, weaken labor protections, and drive down wages.

"… the question of unity brings up a hard subject, a subject all of us know about but few want to- acknowledge -- race. Because the reality is that while a young man named Michael Brown died just a short distance from us in Ferguson, from gunshot wounds from a police officer, other young men of color have died and will die in similar circumstances, in communities all across this country. … Because the reality is we still have racism in America."

Is teacher tenure obsolete? Or is it the kind of policy that should protect all workers?

Historical discrimination, demographics, and public funding have left home care workers at the very bottom of the American work hierarchy. The wages these workers earn are painfully low: the median salary for a personal care aide is $19,910 annually, or $9.57 an hour; a home health aide earns $20,820 or $10.01 per hour. On the Bureau of Labor Statistic's list of 30 fastest-growing jobs, personal and home care aides are the worst paid.

Neoliberal education reform is plagued by a contradiction in its commitments — schools need autonomy to be responsive to communities, yet most charters are run by non-educators with no stake in these communities.

The Warren Buffett owned Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway pushed hard for a railroad union to agree to one person crews. Despite support from Union leadership, the membership rejected the one person crew contract.

Miners visited Parliament during talks on a proposed law to expand subcontracting, though some weren’t allowed to enter because they were wearing work uniforms and boots. thThey are demanding that those responsible for the disaster that killed 301 workers be brought to justice; that the mines be nationalized again; that subcontracting be banned; and that occupational health and safety measures be enforced.

When the Supreme Court ruled that unions could not collect dues from the home-care workers they represent, the justices set workers and their clients on a course that could harm them both.