Skip to main content

Tidbits - November 14, 2013

Portside
Reader Comments - More on the AFL-CIO; NFL Bullying; Vets and Peace; Seattle Socialists Win; Obamacare; Babies; Announcements - Organizing Walmart & Fast Food Industry - New York - Nov 19; Fighting Back Against Wall St. - NYC - Nov 25; Mark Rogovin To Be Inducted Into the Illinois Labor History Society's Labor Hall of Honor; 'Spies Of Mississippi' preview - NYC - Dec 15; Audio available -The Hidden History of Workplace Resistance: U.S. Autoworkers Speak Out;

Scalia's Chance to Smash Unions: The Huge Under-the-Radar Case

Josh Eidelson Salon
A Supreme Court case being argued could take away a tactic that's kept unions alive. The case, Unite Here Local 355 v. Mulhall, involves the constitutionality of "card check neutrality agreements" between unions and companies they're trying to organize. The case now facing Antonin Scalia and company could be "the most significant labor case in a generation."

labor

A Resounding No Vote from Machinists at Boeing

Dominic Gates The Seattle Times
Members of the International Association of Machinists have overwhelmingly rejected a contract proposal that would have eliminated their defined benefit pension plan, increased their health insurance costs, and provided wage increases that would have amounted to a pay cut over the contract's eight-year proposed term.

Tidbits - November 7, 2013

Portside
Reader Comments - Science, Climate Change; Angela Davis; Israel; Elections and Labor; Music and Race Relations - Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun; Weathermen; Doctors & Interns as Workers; Mondragón; Golden Rice; Civil War was About Slavery; Announcements - Stop the Attacks on the School Bus Drivers' Union-Boston-Nov 9; Art to End All Wars - Live! Auction-New York-Nov 16; Unions & Child Care: Expanding Access, Raising Standards-New York-Dec 18; Travel-Study Delegations to Cuba

The Struggle to Save Worker Education at Brooklyn College

Andy Piascik Portside
Brooklyn College's plan to dramatically scale back the Graduate Center for Worker Education is one of the latest efforts to curtail examination of working class issues done in a way designed to provide students with activist skills.

Los Angeles Walmart Workers on Strike, Stage Sit-in, Dozens Arrested

Jway; Mike Hall; OUR Walmart SoCal
In a preview of what will be a nationwide day of action on Black Friday, Walmart workers at several Southern California stores walked off the job this morning to protest Walmart's low wages. Just minutes ago, sixty Walmart workers were arrested for engaging in a peaceful sit-in in downtown Los Angeles.

labor

LA Walmart Workers Go On Strike

OUR Walmart (Organization United for Respect at Walmart) Common Dreams
Workers put jobs on the line in protest of Walmart's aggressive efforts to silence them. Community leaders vow peaceful civil disobedience in protest of Walmart's retaliation and poverty-jobs.

The Rise of Chicago's 99% Against Rahm Emanuel, "Mayor 1%"

Mark Karlin, Truthout Interview Truthout
Will Rahm Emanuel's effort to establish a privatized neoliberal outpost in Chicago succeed? Not if the ongoing uprising brushfires turn from kindling wood into a contemporary Chicago fire of political resistance. Kari Lydersen, author of "Mayor 1%," tells Truthout Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is representative of the neoliberal wing of the Democratic party, and he's getting significant pushback in his efforts to expand privatization and limit protests.

Union Members Provoke Arrests - This Time Inside the Cosmopolitan

Ed Komenda VegasInc
Las Vegas workers, stage sit-in on casino floor of the Cosmopolitan, demanding the Vegas resort recognize their union. For two years the $4 billion casino has refused to negotiate with their workers, and their union - Culinary Workers Union or UNITE HERE local 226.

labor

The Image and Influence of California's Organized Labor

Scott Detrow California Report (Public Radio Consortium, KQED)
While unions are "taking it on the chin" in many areas of the country - e.g. states like Wisconsin and Indiana eliminating collective bargaining rights - organized labor is alive and well in California politics.
Subscribe to Labor