Good jobs should be as American as apple pie, but U.S. corporations have shipped some six million American jobs overseas in the past decade. Yesterday in Pittsburgh, some 200 union members told U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) that it’s time to “Bring Jobs Home.”

Hoping to talk to Sen. Toomey (R-PA) or his staff to urge support for the Bring Jobs Home Act (S. 2884), the activists from 19 unions and labor groups marched to Toomey’s home office. But even the offering of an All-American, union-made apple pie (courtesy of Food and Commercial Workers [UFCW] Local 23) couldn’t get the group in the door.

Things looked bleak for United Steelworkers Local 10-1 last September when Sunoco Inc. announced it would shut down its Philadelphia refinery if a buyer was not found.  But after a hard-fought, ten-month campaign waged by the local and international union, USW Local 10-1 members ratified a contract with a new owner, Philadelphia Energy Solutions, which is a joint partnership between The Carlyle Group and Sunoco.

Nicole Fuller, AFL-CIO Community Services liaison for the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania/Philadelphia Council (UWSEPA), reports on the effort to provide book bags for children in need.  

Five years ago, AFL-CIO Community Services liaison Janet Hammond Ryder, who is retiring this year, spearheaded a partnership with the UWSEPA, unions, local businesses and grassroots community leaders to raise money, collect school supplies and pack them in book bags and distribute them to children living in shelters in Philadelphia and three surrounding counties. Her vision dubbed “Stuff the Bus” is now being duplicated in sister United Way agencies.

Liz McElroy of the Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO and AFL-CIO field communications staffer Nora Frederickson send us this report about a Verizon action in Philadelphia.

As 45,000 members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and Electrical Workers (IBEW) on the East Coast continue their strike against Verizon to maintain quality, middle-class jobs, union locals in southeastern Pennsylvania decided to take their message directly to the public – at the local ballgame.