Portside

After an all out effort by the labor movement, voters in Missouri rejected "right to work" legislation by a 2-1 margin. This reprised a labor victory from 40 years ago when voters rejected similar anti-worker legislation.

By joining together and working in union, we will fight the corrupt forces intent on dismantling worker protections and continue the fight for safe jobs with good wages and benefits, dignity and respect in the workplace for all.

Employers use lockouts to weaken unions. Lockouts sabotage the functioning of the union-management relationship, and they undermine standard and secure jobs in favour of more precariousness. Lockouts are also sometimes used to shift production from one plant or country to another, as well as to close unionized plants.

Just cause — a legal right to your job — should be an essential part of any package of reforms to restore workplace dignity and fairness.

Ceding exclusive representation in order to write non-members off rather than winning them over will not result in the labor movement growing or becoming any more militant or successful.

Many in the labor movement are watching the Supreme Court to see what happens with Janus v. AFSCME. But Janus is not the only important case for workers. The Court will open with three important cases that seriously cut employee rights.

The ousting of President Dilma Rousseff has provided an opportunity for the proponents of neoliberalism and those who want to break union power. Most of Brazil's union centers fear that proposed government reforms will weaken unions and further the spread of subcontracting.

Labor sould figtt the proposed National RIght to Work Law. But it is more imortant to continue to build alliances among other progressive groups to fight other reforms that have a serious chance of passage. In particular, labor should put its resources into organizing government workers who are under attack on all sides.