Portside

As wild as a 4-day workweek might sound, UAW leader Shawn Fain is pushing a concept that has captured the imagination of workers all over the world, thanks to widely publicized trials. Microsoft ran a month-long pilot in Japan with positive results.

The catalyst for a naturally-occurring general strike may continue to be elusive despite the ongoing struggle facing working people throughout the country. But that can change as workers across all sectors continue to suffer.

UAW president Shawn Fain has called for a 32-hour workweek. It’s the revival of an old vision in the US labor movement — and the sort of ambition overworked and underpaid employees need.

A weakness of labor is an inability to critically examine the stakes. As a healthy organization, you have to be able to examine the past, acknowledge it, account for it, and move forward. Without that you’re stuck in a circular trap.

The United Auto Workers is refusing to endorse Joe Biden until he commits to backing an electric vehicle transition that creates good union jobs. The union’s new reform leadership is absolutely right to hold Biden’s feet to the fire.

As the economy opened up to women a half century ago, one in three working women was an office employee. As the clerical workforce grew by leaps and bounds, so did a sense of injustice among the women, leading to the founding of the 9 to 5 Movement.

Labor militants ousted entrenched leadership in the United Mine Workers in 1972, an historic breakthrough that led to setbacks and successes.