Portside

Two articles on Venezuela. The first is on the takeover of an abandoned Clorex factory, by the Venezuelan government. The second is about the assassination of a young member of the Venezuelan Socialist Party.

It's important that we don't just see working-class people as passive victims of neo-liberalism. Often it is precisely workers occupying the lowest rungs of the labor market who exercise both voice and agency. We need to recognize the shared humanity working-class people hold in common.

Under the settlement, these workers, who were supported by the hospitality union Unite Here, also will receive preference in hiring at future Boston-area Hyatt hotels, although many said they would be reluctant to return to a Hyatt unless it is unionized. Nationwide, about a quarter of Hyatt hotels have a union presence, and Marc Ellin, senior vice president at Hyatt, said future Hyatts in Greater Boston “could involve union representation

Economist Juliet Schor is known worldwide for her research on the interrelated issues of work, leisure, and consumption. Her books on these themes include The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure, The Overspent American: Upscaling, Downshifting, and the New Consumer, and Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth (retitled True Wealth for its paperback edition). She is also a professor of sociology at Boston College. —Eds.

UNITE HERE and the Teamsters have been quietly negotiating a contract with Harrah's Hotel and Casino in New Orleans for the last six months that, when inked, would double the size of organized labor's tiny footprint in the New Orleans tourism economy.

Five years ago, Hyatt Hotels in Boston fired workers after making them train their replacements. HERE Local 26 has backed these non-union workers in their fight. After five years they have won.

The rise of precarious labor in Canada, combined with the deliberate creation of fear through constant surveillance, the security apparatus and the demonization and criminalization of dissent, starts to answer the question of why there is no militant resistance to savage capitalism or even sustained social solidarity.

In the last few years trade unions have led the fight against cutbacks in Greece. These fights, although not stopping these cuts, have changed the political scenery of the country.

A training program is the central component of an effort by Unite Here Local 26, the hospitality workers’ union, to reach out to the African-American community to fill jobs that offer good wages and benefits. The initiative aims to expand the diversity of hotel workforces, increasingly dominated by immigrants, and meet the growing demand in the industry for employees who are fluent in English.

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.