Walmart Workers Protest over Minimum Wage in 15 US Cities

Karen McVeigh The Guardian
In 15 cities today, Walmart workers and their supporters are staging their biggest day of action since the groundbreaking "Black Friday" strike in November. They are demanding that Walmart reinstate 20 workers they say were fired for taking part in a June strike, and they are calling on Walmart to end its poverty-level wage scale and pay a living wage. (Mike Hall, AFL-CIO Now)

GOP Dreads Prospects of Autoworkers Union Driving South

Erik Schelzig, The Associated Press Seattle Times
Discussions between the United Auto Workers union and a Tennessee Volkswagen plant have raised fears among Southern politicians that union representation would deter businesses - and badly needed jobs - from coming to their respective states.

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Black Workers, the Public Sector and the Future of Labor Unions

Bill Fletcher, Jr. Law at the Margins
The current crisis facing the public sector, a major location of African American workers, along with the crisis facing organized labor, should present a moment to reconsider old assumptions. A multi-union effort to organize Southern public sector workers could be something close to a game-changer on several levels, not the least being the potential impact on Southern politics and Southern unionization. And, as the saying goes, as goes the South, so goes the USA.

Strike: Fast Food Workers Speak Out

These are the names, the faces, the lives and the demands of fast food workers, who are striking for the right to organize and a decent wage.

The AFL-CIO Is Exploring New Investments in Alt-Labor and Texas Organizing

Josh Eidelson The Nation
The AFL-CIO is discussing “the next stage” in alternate formations and there “will be some limited, thoughtful experiments in different places through various affiliates.” The AFL-CIO also plans to support an ambitious multi-union effort to organize in Texas. “The AFT has come to us and said, ‘We want you to convene other unions to make a long-term investment in Texas and we’re going to do it.”

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Labor Mobilizes for March on Washington

Bruce Vail; Mike Hall; Mimi Rosenberg & Ken Nash
Unions are strongly backing march in Washington, DC this Saturday to mark 50th anniversary of 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. March is supported by wide array of civil rights, religious organizations, women's groups, and others. Read how different unions are mobilizing; radio interview with William P. Jones - Fifty Years Later, Commemorating and Learning from One of the Great Moments in History; 1963 March Organizing Manual.

Tidbits - August 15, 2013

Portside
Reader comments: Prisons; Labor Unions; Banning Russia from the Olympics - a Very Bad Idea; Remembering Viola Liuzzo; Bayard Rustin & '63 March on Washington; American Jews & Israeli Racism; Student Debt; Announcements: FREEDOM '63 REMIXED - Legacies of the March on Washington - Aug 16 -New York; The Forgotten History of the March on Washington, Aug 22 -Washington, DC - two events; Walmart Workers are Standing Up!; CCDS 7th Convention; Useful graphic on Climate Change

Tidbits - August 8, 2013

Portside
Reader Comments- Wisconsin Crackdown; Labor Collective Bargaining; Detroit & Pensions; Early Human Settlements show War has Deep Evolutionary Roots; Honduras; Shorts: Child of Disappeared Political Prisoners Found in Argentina; Murder of Philippines Labor Leaders; Announcements - Call Mr. Robeson - Berkeley-Aug 11; Conference Honoring Jerry Tucker - St.Louis Oct 11-13; Organizing 2.0 Fall Internship - NYC Portside announcements about Quote & Toon of the Day, REWIND

Fast Food Strikes Catch Fire

David Moberg In These Times
The fast food strikes are part of a broader movement by low-wage workers for higher pay and union representation that has caught fire over the past year. Targets include a range of employers, including Wal-Mart, federal subcontractors, warehouses, retail stores and car washes. This low-wage service and retail worker movement has tapped into a vein of discontent. But it has also created hopes for change through the fledgling campaign’s remarkable successes.

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Supreme Court Scrutiny of `Neutrality' Pacts Could Be Another Blow to Unions

Bruce Vail In These Times
The U.S. Supreme Court announced last week that it will accept a case for review next year on the use of labor-management "neutrality" agreements in union organizing campaigns. An anti-union decision from the high court would make labor organizing more difficult and threaten labor organizations at a national level, labor experts say.
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