Portside

NXP Semiconductors is one of the world’s top 20 electronics manufacturers and supplies microchips and other parts for high-tech companies like Apple and Asus. In the Philippines, it employs over 1,600 regular workers and 1,700 contract employees. Workers organized collective actions on April 9, 17, 19, and May 1 – which are all government-declared holidays – but the management described these activities as ‘illegal strikes’ and dismissed 24 union leaders on May 5, 2014.

Harris v. Quinn has set the stage for the eventual overruling of Abood; it has confused and perverted the concept of free-riders; and it has created an impossible standard for unions to meet.

The six-week-long "Great Railroad Strike" involved an estimated 100,000 workers in more than a dozen states, and succeeded in paralyzing much of the nation’s transportation system. The strike was brutally crushed by state and federal troops with more than 100 dead and thousands injured. The strike itself may have failed to achieve the B&O employees’ original goal of wage restoration, but it stimulated the growth of unions, particularly among rail workers.