Portside

Mike Parker, a key Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA) organizer who spent thirty-two years as a union reformer and skilled tradesman in Detroit, is leading a citywide slate of progressive candidates in a run for Mayor. Now, as municipal elections loom in the fall, the business community—led by America’s third-most-profitable company, Chevron—wants to make a political comeback by defeating those who've curbed its influence.

We reaffirm UE's historic position. We favor peace and friendly, equitable economic relations between nations. We favor negotiations rather than military confrontation to resolve disputes, including this one. We believe the countries that defeated Nazism in World War II, including the U.S. and Russia, should work together against any resurgence of racism, anti-semitism and fascism in Europe. United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, (UE)

Walmart workers and supporters in the labor movement say they plan a new series of protests over wages and conditions at America's largest private employer, in which they will target the firm's family-friendly ethic ahead of its annual shareholders meeting next week. Hundreds of mothers who work at stores across the US plan a number of strikes in 20 cities nationwide. Others will travel to Walmart headquarters in advance of the upcoming shareholders' meeting next week.

Platinum strike by South African workers strike is having an effect on the economy. Members of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union have been on strike for 18 months.

Fast food workers earn 1,200 times less than CEOs, the widest disparity of any U.S. economic sector. McDonald’s employees make about $8.25 per hour on average before taxes, and the corporation tacitly acknowledges it pays poverty wages. The company drew flak last year for a website that advised its employees to budget by spending nothing on keeping their homes warm, finding a place to live that costs less than $600 a month and spending $20 a month on health insurance.

We need to critically evaluate the concept of waged work. Due to problems associated with underwork, overwork, and non-work, the system of waged labor fails us in many ways.

Nurses at San Francisco General attempt to meet with Mayor Ed Lee about staffing shortages in the busiest emergency room in the city. Nurses have filed 300 official reports in the last two years, detailing unsafe conditions, but there has been no response from hospital management.

In order to destroy public institutions, like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, public education and the Post Office, corporate America must first destroy the support they enjoy with the working class. One way to do this is to de-fund them or make them difficult and frustrating to access.

Inside squalid quarters, bedrooms are so crowded that men must sleep three to a stack — one on the upper bunk, one on the lower bunk and one below the lower bunk, separated from the floor by only a thin pad for a mattress. In the space between the beds, the men pile cauliflower, onions and sacks of Basmati rice to cook after working all day and washing the construction dirt from their clothes. Exposed wiring hangs from the ceiling, and cockroaches climb the walls.

New Jersey Governor Christie is reducing pension payments worth $2.43 billion to cover a budget deficit thus threatening the stability of the pension fund. He is walking away from a pension overhaul he signed in his first term. He is being sued by the Communications Workers of America and the New Jersey Education Association.