Portside

Workplace sabotage has historically been a powerful organizing tactic. Is the time ripe again?

Lawyers for Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Amazon say the Court erred in 1937 by letting workers have rights on the job.

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Glacier Northwest v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 174 on Jan. 10. Justices Alito and Thomas might want to use this case to narrow what is considered “protected activity”. That would follow the pattern of the 2018 Janus v. AFSCME decision, which was preceded by another case where Alito disputed the 1977 precedent that public-sector unions may charge nonmembers fees for the costs of representing them.

Domestic workers were excluded from the 1935 National Labor Relations Act. Colorado joins a few states that give rights to domestic workers (including people who care for children, tend gardens and clean other people’s homes).

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.

Employee survey platforms allow employers to sort groups of employees by the departments, locations, and demographics most likely to unionize.

Moderators Note: This Portside Labor moderator does not agree with the following proposal by Andy Stern and Eli Lehrer. I do believe that the left in the labor movement needs to know what schemes conservatives are proposing, especially when it comes from a former "labor leader".

The death of the labor movement has been repeatedly predicted as an imminent event for more than a century. Yet it lives, and is getting stronger.