Portside

Puget Sound workers are latest to join the strike wave, with weeks to go before a Black Friday showdown

Continuing the discussion on the role of the AFL-CIO, on the AFL-CIO's recent convention. A response to the ongoing discussion that is needed, started by Steve Early, Bill Fletcher, Jeff Crosby and Peter Olney and published in October by Portside.

New York State's nurses union has historically been a low-key, apolitical group that steered clear of most controversy.

Some unions have called for the repeal of Obamacare and a return to the status quo before its passage. We in the Labor Campaign believe that such a call would be a disaster for the labor movement. Rather, we believe that this is a moment to move forward to healthcare justice by ac- knowledging the weaknesses in the ACA while defending its gains and moving to establish a single-payer Medicare for All system that would make healthcare a right for everyone in America.

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.