Portside

Lee Saunders, President of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, along with other trade union leaders addressed the Illinois delegation to the Democratic Party Convention and pledged support to Council 31, AFSCME who has threatened to go out on strike.

President Lee Saunders, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, congratulates Secretary Hillary Clinton on her victories in Ohio, Illinois, North Carolina and Florida.

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees President Lee Saunders announced AFSCME was relocating its 2015 National Women's Conference from Indiana out of disgust at its passage of a Religious Liberty Law. He called it an un-American law.

A compilation of articles by Richard Steier, the "best full-time reporter on the New York City labor beat." He is the editor of the Chief where these articles first appeared. This is the book to read if you want to know what was happening on the municipal labor scene since the mid-1990's.

Wisconsin was the first state to grant public-sector unions the right to negotiate contracts. Before Gov. Gaylord Nelson signed that law in 1959, only unionized workers in private companies had a government-protected right to bargain collectively. The Wisconsin idea soon spread around the country. Act 10 is an about-face, and Gov. Walker and his Republican supporters see it as a tough-minded strategy that other states can follow. History repeating itself, if in reverse.