Portside

As teachers prepare for an April walkout, there are some key differences when compared to their 1990 strike, which present unique challenges, along with unique opportunities.

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.

Given the public sector is the largest employer of African-Americans, and recognizing their substantial and traditional involvement in unions — Black workers are more likely to belong to a union than any other racial group — such anti-union campaigns as Right to Work have particular implications for African-Americans.

Though the law is set to take effect on August 28, the pro-union We Are Missouri coalition, led by the Missouri AFL-CIO, says it has collected enough signatures from voters to call for a state-wide referendum in November 2018 that could nullify the legislation.

As alt-right and white supremacist movements grow it is important to revisit history and see the ways in which most hate movements are intertwined.

For public-employee unions in Wisconsin, an open shop isn’t even the worst of it. The anti-union Act 10, which Governor Scott Walker forced through in 2011, mandated annual recertification votes and all but eliminated collective bargaining.

Marquette University law professor Paul Secunda said he thinks the legal battle over right to work in the state will eventually be decided by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, where conservatives hold a 5-2 majority. However, Secunda said Wisconsin's right-to-work lawsuit has highlighted "a real free-rider problem" with right to work, and that future lawsuits could raise similar arguments in federal court.

Republicans in Virginia have proposed a referendum in November to strengthen the state's existing open shop laws. In this, an opportunity presents itself that labor unions must take. Our goal should not simply be to defeat the proposal: it should be a realignment of the conversation surrounding the role in labor unions in Virginia’s—and America’s—political economy.

If the labor movement must invest in politics, it would be wisest to do so at the community/local/state level. It is there, our ‘laboratories of public policy’, where the labor movement can have the most positive impact on the lives of working people.