Portside

The AFL–CIO is a multifaceted institution composed of scores of autonomous unions, so President Richard Trumka’s leadership can hardly turn around this cumbersome vessel all that quickly. But the new emphasis is clear: the unions should ally with progressive partners and devote more energy to make the kind of changes in social policy that can benefit millions of poorly paid and insecure workers.

The 1.3 million member United Food and Commercial Workers Union will rejoin the AFL-CIO after an 8 year hiatus with the Change to Win labor federation. The UFCW will become the AFL-CIO's largest private sector affiliate and bring the labor federation's membership to about 13 million.

Some 40,000 workers at more than 250 New England supermarkets approved new collective bargaining agreements this month in an uneasy embrace by their union of the Affordable Care Act of 2010, also known as Obamacare.