Portside

Several union officials charge that Working Families Party officials this year re-worked the presidential endorsement process in a way that rigged it for Bernie Sanders with the hopes that its work on behalf of the Vermont senator would help the party raise money and increase membership.The unions that remain argue the party will play a critical role mobilizing the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.

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.

Faced with the very real threat of extinction, unions have largely put collective bargaining on the back burner, and instead must try to remind American workers of the basic concept of worker solidarity. “We start from the point of view that, because so few people are in unions these days, very few people have personal experience with collective power,” explains Karen Nussbaum, the executive director of Working America.