Portside

At the AFL-CIO annual convention next week community based organizations will be invited to attend and participate in the proceedings. This is a first and it is good news. However when the convention ends what is needed is not just good resolutions but a commitment to action.

In the face of a steadily declining labor movement, unions are increasingly battling one another, devoting resources to gaining members from rivals rather than focusing on the 88.2% of the workforce that is not unionized. Recent "raids"have been especially big with tens of thousands of members at stake. They've become easier to carry off because many unions don't just represent one profession anymore, and can rationalize expanding into rival turf.

A new book by Penny Lewis offers valuable insight into the true nature of the movement to end the war in Vietnam.

A new book by Penny Lewis offers valuable insight into the true nature of the movement to end the war in Vietnam.

Once again, Wisconsin is ground zero for the future of the labor movement — the catalyst for a new, disassembled, fitting-and-starting labor movement.

It is especially important that the AFL-CIO and other participants in American labor relations become better acquainted with the concept of members-only collective bargaining because the National Labor Relations Board will likely be considering that process in the near future.

Conditions for 70,000 workers at Pegatron plants allegedly worse than those reported in the Foxconn scandal.

Fast-food workers one day strike spreads to many cities. Workers at MacDonald's, Taco Bell, Popeye's, Long John Silver's and other restaurants hold one day strike demanding higher wages.

Out of sheer existential necessity, then, unions have entered a period of experimentation. The fast-food campaigns that SEIU is backing won’t plausibly conclude with a contract with McDonald’s and Wendy’s. The more likely scenario is that those protesting will try to win minimum-wage increases for workers—either generally or in particular industries—at the city level, either through the vote of city councils or of voters at the polls.

Employers are increasingly hiring workers as "on-call" employees, with no guarantee of minimum hours of work, leading to severe underemployment and scheduling difficulties. One British firm now employs almost all workers on "zero-hours contracts." The Labour Party is attempting to outlaw the practice.