Portside

One simply can't explain the decline of union representation without acknowledging the role of employer opposition and its empowerment by government policy, as outlined in a 2009 report from the Economic Policy Institute. The government role includes the expansion of "right to work" laws, and the enfeeblement of the National Labor Relations Board and its intimidation by members of Congress.

A Los Angeles City Council committee voted unanimously to authorize a study on nearly doubling the minimum wage for employees of large hotels in the nation's second-largest city. The L.A. proposal is one of several municipal moves toward raising wages well above the 5-year-old federal rate of $7.25; at $15.37, it would set a local hotel industry wage floor far beyond the $10.10 proposed by congressional Democrats.

Reformers will challenge the Machinists Union leadership in a membership election to take place in June. The recent contract at Boeing which included significant pension givebacks despite record profits at Boeing is one of the major spurs behind the oppositions campaign.

The Jackson mayor had ambitious plans to bring "people power" and a "solidarity economy" to his city and state.

"This press conference is about waking up America to the fact more tarsands coming into this country, and right away with the Keystone pipeline you have 45 per cent [more oil], is a danger to the health of our people," Boxer warned while sharing stories about residents who suffered ill health after nearby oil spills.

The Northwestern University football team’s struggle to form a union raises the question of what it means to be a worker.

By any measure, Nugent's statement about Obama as a "subhuman mongrel" comes directly from what Jefferson had written about black people in America in his book, Notes on the State of Virginia (1785).