Portside

ILWU members have maintained strong, round-the-clock picket lines for months since UGC locked out members of ILWU Local 4 in Vancouver in February and CGI locked out ILWU Local 8 members in Portland in May.

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Despite the massive attention it's gained, this movement is still in its infancy. It must be built with strong workplace and community networks. This summer, we went on strike for very concrete demands. But we also went on strike for dignity, respect, and power. Because militancy works. My bosses don't taunt me about going on strike anymore. After striking, I got a raise - and more than a dozen co-workers asking me how they could join the union.

Texas new voter ID law could prevent women who use maiden names or hyphenated names from voting. Women must present original documents verifying their name change. So far Texas has issued 41 free voter IDs to women who request one - out of 1.4 million Texas voters who lack the required documents.

We need to own up to is that privatization experiments, based on ideology rather than evidence, have created disruption, neglect, and harm to vital public services and infrastructure - and those effects have undermined the private sector which depends on high quality public services. We seem to have forgotten that the public sector has long created the environment and resources necessary for businesses to prosper.

The nation's largest labor unions are ready and willing to help fight global warming, but are cautioning environmentalists that workers need new clean-energy jobs before existing industries are shut down.