Portside

Dollar General is one of the lowest-paying major retail chains, with average wages barely above the $7.25 federal minimum. Low pay is made worse by the lack of hours allotted to workers. In response workers are starting to organize.

No more arguing over territory or industries—we need multi-union coalitions capable of organizing on a national scale.

The main thing that I would say to comrades is: don't just do the propaganda. Don't just be in the campus group. Go and meet workers in your local high street and unionize them. That is the best thing a socialist could do: help to organize the working class where we find them today and fight the issues that they're facing today.

With unionization taking off at Starbucks, the company is quietly admitting that it’s in a bind: unionization threatens its low-wage model, but union busting hurts its public image as a supposedly progressive company.

It’s not often there is a strategic opening created by the confluence of a favorable NLRB, a supportive presidency, a tight job market, and a roiling economy. This is not a time to cling to paradigms wedded to past conditions. Now we can "Think Big."

The Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee, a partnership between socialists and the United Electrical Workers union, is trying to be at the heart of a new mass labor resurgence. Their success could help millions of workers.