Portside

Workers put jobs on the line in protest of Walmart's aggressive efforts to silence them. Community leaders vow peaceful civil disobedience in protest of Walmart's retaliation and poverty-jobs.

Working families did very well in Tuesday's elections. Major victories in New York, Virginia, Boston, Ohio, New Jersey and possibly Washington State have put the Tea Party on the defensive.

"Too often, when workers raise concerns about health and safety hazards on the job, employers retaliate with reduced hours or dismissal, even though doing so is clearly illegal," says Katie Weatherford, regulatory policy analyst at the Center for Effective Government.

Mondragón has been justly cited as a leading example of what can be done through cooperative organization. But it recently announced that its most important unit, Fagor, was filing for bankruptcy. This raises important larger questions about the market, and longer-term strategies for moving beyond the failings of corporate capitalism and traditional socialism.

When Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker proposed sharply curtailing union rights in 2011, he presented his legislation as a response to the particular fiscal conditions facing Wisconsin. Indeed, in each state where anti-union legislation was advanced, voters typically perceived it as the product of homegrown politicians and a response to the unique conditions of their state. In fact, however, broadly similar legislation was proposed simultaneously in multiple states.

While unions are "taking it on the chin" in many areas of the country - e.g. states like Wisconsin and Indiana eliminating collective bargaining rights - organized labor is alive and well in California politics.

Dr. Ana Maria Fores Tamayo, a New Faculty Majority Board Member, describes her treatment as an adjunct and why they must fight back.

The AFL-CIO isn’t lifting a finger to help the White House — it remains in negotiations at the White House and on Capitol Hill to change elements of the law it finds objectionable to workers. Those talks were put on hold earlier this month during the government shutdown — a far larger concern for the federal government employee unions — and have begun to restart only in recent days, according to officials from multiple unions.

A New York City arbitrator rules that the city's first casino must pay its employees a living wage. The ruling will raise wages of 1,400 workers.

A New York City arbitrator rules that the city's first casino must pay its employees a living wage. The ruling will raise wages of 1,400 workers.