Portside

The agreement calls for an immediate 4.5% pay increase as a signing bonus and then across-the-board 3% raises annually through 2016, plus an additional 2% each year for many employees within certain longevity and pay categories, according to UC. The lower-wage workers will not have to pay any increases for some health insurance coverage.

The University of Illinois at Chicago United Faculty successfully organized a union in 2012 but have not been able to reach an agreement with the administration on a first contract. The union is prioritizing higher wages, particularly for non-tenure track faculty, and a greater share of decision-making power in the university. They have called a two-day strike for the next two days.

Since December of last year, garment workers in Cambodia have been fighting to raise the minimum wage. The government has responded with violence, resulting in the death of five workers.

Taylor Farms workers want more than a living wage. They want respect and dignity in the workplace. Instead, they endure unsafe working conditions and the company’s routine termination of workers who are injured on the job - So on a windy Thursday before Christmas, Teamster members in the region joined Taylor Farms workers and community allies in an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike against the company.

The members of the University of Illinois Chicago, have voted to go on strike after fifteen months of negotiations. Among the faculty members key demands are improvements in pay for adjunct professors. In light of Congress planning to fail to extend unemployment benefits for the long term unemployed, we present Daniel Kahn and the Painted Bird's video of "March of the Jobless Corps".

The university campus workers joining the medical center workers in the ULP strike have also had similar concessions forced on them. Campus workers struck in 2005 and sympathy-struck in May, but this is the first time both groups have struck together. Unionized graduate students, members of UAW 2865, are sympathy-striking this time.