Portside

Like most new organizing in the private sector, decades of attempts to unionize Walmart stores in the U.S. and Canada have been met with firings, outsourcing, and even closings.

Leo Robinson was a leader of the longshore union in San Francisco. He died this week. For many of us, he was an example of what being an internationalist and a working-class activist was all about.

As Facebook and Twitter become as central to workplace conversation as the company cafeteria, federal regulators are ordering employers to scale back policies that limit what workers can say online.

PARIS — French labor unions and business leaders struck a deal to overhaul labor laws. The changes include more flexibility for employers to reduce hours to prevent lay offs in times of "economic distress." Employers will pay a higher tax for using temporary labor. In exchange for flexibility, unions secured improvements to unemployment benefits and health insurance, as well as seats on the board of large companies.

City council passes "wage theft" law that threatens license of violating companies. Will other cities follow?

As New York City school bus drivers head toward a strike, slated for Wednesday morning, the national president of the drivers' union accused Mayor Michael Bloomberg of trying to gut standards for workers in public services, comparing the mayor to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), who controversially rolled back collective bargaining rights for public employees in that state.

Teachers unions and other educational service workers across the country - in New York, Seattle, and Hawaii - are fighting against further cuts in school budgets, for better quality education for their students. In New York, school bus drivers prepare to strike for job security for trained professional drivers; in Seattle, teachers vote to refuse to give standardized tests; in Hawaii teachers campaign for a penny tax increase dedicated to education.

Employer-created wellness programs are about what workers should do on their own time, not what the employer could do to stop making them sick at work...Wellness programs are growing fast. In firms with more than 200 workers, 94 percent had such programs in 2012

Healthcare unions united in California. The California Nurses Association (CNA) and the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) unveil their formal affiliation this past week. Major target is Kaiser Permanente, the giant California health care chain that made $6 billion in profits since 2009 but still wants union job cuts and contract givebacks.

Healthcare unions united in California. The California Nurses Association (CNA) and the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) unveil their formal affiliation this past week. Major target is Kaiser Permanente, the giant California health care chain that made $6 billion in profits since 2009 but still wants union job cuts and contract givebacks.