Portside

The criminal trial for the six officers involved in the death of Freddie Gray isn’t set to start until October, but this morning, the city of Baltimore agreed to pay his family $6.4 million in restitution. The Baltimore Sun reports that the city’s spending panel, the Board of Estimates, is expected to approve the settlement at a meeting tomorrow. Gray’s family had not yet filed a civil suit against the city.

This year the left must use the ideological opening created by the most anti-corporate political campaign in recent history to build political capacity that lasts well beyond this electoral cycle.

“There’s a Superfund for dirt,” Mazzocchi used to say. “There ought to be one for workers.”

A recent string of campaigns show that while unions at “legacy” newspapers are eroding, organizing still has a place in the digital space.

Yoga Joes; Refugee rescue; Top of the (anti-arschloch) pops; Barenboim’s blues; Asians in Hollywood

As the new international president of my union, the Communications Workers of America, I hope other labor and progressive leaders will join me in helping to jumpstart Working Families Parties across the country. It’s a strategy we can’t afford to neglect.

Formed in 1966, the Black Panther Party for Self Defense remains misunderstood and poorly represented – especially on film. The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution tries to sort the fact from fiction.

Union density went up in New York City and New York state this past year, according to a new study by Ruth Milkman and Stephanie Luce. They also found that nearly nearly 40 percent of black workers of New York City are union members. Unions raise wages for all workers compared to nonunion workers, but the pay boost is larger for black workers. Unions also help reduce inequality between nonblack and black workers.

Phillips 66 proposes an Oil Train offloading facility in San Luis Obispo County to ship 3 million gallons per day of volatile and toxic crude by rail in outdated and unsafe oil tank cars into California, including through Inland Empire and LA Harbor, Downtown LA and the San Fernando Valley. Recently LA City Councilman Mike Bonin introduced a resolution and the entire Council approved asking the San Luis Obispo County Supervisors to deny Phillip 66's request.

Now, a new photo exhibition at Los Angeles’ Union Station captures images of modern-day Rosies working in manufacturing. The Jobs to Move America coalition and the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy are hosting the “Women Can Build: Re-Envisioning Rosie” portrait series, which aims to celebrate the women who are building America’s transportation system—and put pressure on major companies to recruit and train women for high-paying manufacturing jobs.