Portside

It’s that time of year when bosses look at their balance sheets and send employees packing. Legally, they don’t even have to explain why—and usually, they don’t.

The bottom-line question is why so many highly profitable companies prefer to spend money to fight the unions instead of offering their vulnerable employees affordable health care coverage and safety from sexual assault.

In 1969, a rogue attorney for the National Labor Relations Board undermined a critical piece of labor law. Fifty years later, the Biden administration is trying to reverse the damage caused by that decision.

The battle for labor law reform has historically been one of the most difficult in US politics. Passing the PRO Act is crucial — but workers may not be able to win it without flexing their strike muscles.

Two major pieces of labor law legislation, both rooted in the concept of “sectoral bargaining,” are now being weighed in California and New York. California’s would represent a genuine advance for low-wage workers; New York’s would be a disaster.

The For the People Act and the Protecting the Right to Organize Act are essential to ensuring working people are heard in legislative chambers and corporate boardrooms. The fate of these bills hinges on an anti-democratic Senate rule: the filibuster.

Delivering for working people means action -- and firing Robb on day one will show that the tide in the war on workers is shifting.

The biggest innovation in Warren’s platform is a private right of action in the federal courts against employers. The biggest disappointment of Warren’s labor plan is her studious avoidance of a just cause right to your job, as Sanders has proposed.

Are Bosses Afraid of "Members only Bargaining"? The Chamber of Commerce has published a report on the threat of "members only bargaining". Labor law expert Charles Morris comments on their fears. In another article the Wall St Journal worries that the AFL will support members only bargaining as part of it approach to labor law reform.