I'm the blog editor and social media manager at the AFL-CIO. Interviewing union musicians was my introduction to the labor movement. My first job after graduating college was in Syracuse, New York, where I wrote and edited the International Musician, the monthly magazine for the American Federation of Musicians (AFM). Protecting Social Security and Medicare from benefit cuts brought me to Washington, D.C., where I spent two years as a new media coordinator at the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. I came to the AFL-CIO in the summer of 2012, just in time to re-elect President Barack Obama. When I'm not tweeting about America's unions, it's likely I'm watching Syracuse basketball and football.
Ed Sills of the Texas AFL-CIO sends us this:
My wife and I are big fans of “The Good Wife,” which, besides the inspired-by-real-events plotline—a wife “stands by” a cheating politician who has a statewide profile—is as fine a legal procedural as I have seen on television. The show combines a “case-of-the-week” approach with the ongoing soap-opera-style plot, and it pops.
We've all seen the charts. As union membership rates go down, so goes the middle class and people's ability to bargain for living wages and a voice on the job.
David Madland and Karla Walter from the Center for American Progress (CAP) say, in Top 6 Policies to Help the Middle Class that Won’t Cost Taxpayers a Penny, that strengthening people's ability to organize unions and to bargain collectively will go a long way in rebuilding the middle class.
The Healthy Families Act, a federal bill that would allow workers to earn seven paid sick days a year, was just introduced by Sen. Tom Harkin and Rep. Rosa DeLauro. Portland, Ore., was the most recent city to pass an ordinance granting workers earned paid sick leave. Will New York follow suit?
The Ironworkers are committed to green training and consider themselves the "original recyclers." Learn more from California Ironworkers Apprenticeship Director Dick Zampa in this video the Ironworkers sent us.
In case you missed it, "A Wider World," a PBS TV show, is replaying a segment highlighting the work of union volunteers and the United Way for Southeastern Michigan on the Ray West Memorial Ramp Project.
Check out the video above, and check your local PBS listings for times the segment will air in your area.
"A Wider World" focuses on inspirational tales, stigma busting, cutting-edge treatment options and assisting technology, veterans issues, sports and other stories that celebrate the resilience of the human spirit and the abilities of all.
On Wednesday, April 24, the AFL-CIO and MomsRising will be hosting a Twitter chat at 2 p.m. ET about earned paid sick leave. Follow the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #WellnessWed.
Check out this new video from Transport Workers (TWU) Local 555 that is seeking a fair contract with Southwest Airlines. Trends come and go, but integrity is forever. TWU members hope Southwest gets the message.
CQ Roll Call (subscription only) reported yesterday that chairman of the House Democratic Caucus Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.), along with a broad coalition of Democrats, pushed back against President Barack Obama's budget proposal to cut Social Security benefits by switching to the "chained" CPI method to calculate Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLAs).
In 2011, the labor movement committed, as part of the Clinton Global Initiative, to help facilitate $20 million in investment in energy-efficient retrofits. Today President Clinton joined AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and AFT President Randi Weingarten for a ribbon-cutting ceremony as work begins on an energy efficiency retrofit of the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Boston public safety unions and first responders announced a $50,000 reward for the information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the marathon terrorist attack Monday, as well as the establishment of a fund that will aid the victims of the attack.
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