Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent C. Gray still hasn’t said if he will sign or veto the living wage bill for workers at big-box stores such as Walmart. So, as they say on public television telethons, “keep those phones ringing.”  All you need to do is click here and enter your phone number, ZIP code (you must be a D.C. resident) and email. Within a minute, you’ll get a phone call at the number you entered that will connect you directly to Gray’s office.

It's not every day a former manufacturing hub for middle-class jobs gets to reinvent itself after the factories and plants shut down and ship off. But that's exactly what's happening in Long Beach, Calif., in Los Angeles County. 

Information about the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) working in secret to push state-level policy to more extreme levels is coming to light more and more and America's working families are starting to stand up to the group's corporate-driven agenda. While ALEC's agenda is all over the policy map, the organization has a particular focus on pushing new laws that attack working families and undercut the rights of workers, both in the workplace and in retirement.  Here are eight of the most dangerous and most widespread ways that ALEC is targeting workers and their right to a voice on the job.

Whenever communities, lawmakers or activists question or criticize Walmart for the way it treats workers—the low-pay, the stores’ impact on the communities—the retail giant pulls out a well-worn script with a simple message, “Walmart creates jobs and if there’s one thing this economy needs, it’s more jobs.”   

Setting aside the quality of the jobs for another day, is Walmart telling the truth?

We still haven’t heard from Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent C. Gray on if he plans to sign a living wage bill for workers in big-box stores like Walmart that operate in the District of Columbia. So let’s give him a call and urge him to sign the Large Retailer Accountability Act (LRAA).

Thousands and thousands of fast-food and other low-wage workers this week have walked off the job in a series of one-day strikes in cities across the country. They are demanding a living wage, no retaliation for striking and the right to join unions. Those strikes are continuing today and likely into next week too.

Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent C. Gray says he still hasn’t decided if he will sign a living wage bill for workers in big-box stores like Walmart that operate in the District of Columbia. If you live in the district, here’s your chance to tell the mayor to do the right thing.

Click here to send Gray an email urging him to sign the Large Retailer Accountability Act (LRAA).

Walmart, the country’s largest private employer and huge wielder of political influence, is taking on their greatest challenge yet: A college junior writing an op-ed in her student newspaper. Georgetown University student Erin Riordan wrote a piece for The Hoya, the school’s student-run newspaper, in support of the Large Retailer Accountability Act (LRAA), which would raise the minimum wage for big-box retail employees to $12.50 an hour.To deal with this threat, Walmart dispatched Steven Restivo, a senior director of communications at Walmart, to write a responding op-ed.

Mark Bittman never steers you wrong when it comes to ideas and advice on food. Now the with a strike by fast food and other low-wage workers set for Monday in several cities, Bittman, Time magazine’s lead food columnist and a New York Times columnist has a question for politicians and corporate execs who oppose paying workers a decent wage and some advice for the rest of us. He’s on the money with both.

The median age of today’s fast-food worker is over 29, and many are trying to support families. One estimate claims that a family of four needs nearly $90,000 a year to get by in the nation’s capital. That’s six minimum wage jobs. Explain to me, please, how you can be pro-family and anti-living-wage simultaneously? (Many Republicans in Congress seem to manage.)

While thousands of North Carolina residents rally in opposition, the state legislature continues to push an extremist agenda that will harm the Tar Heel State's working families. The latest outrage is H.B. 74, which is targeted directly at the rights of not only workers, but local governments. A special section of the bill contains a giveaway to large agricultural manufacturers that would provide them a shield against farm workers organizing and bargaining for better rights. A separate bill, that has been a key target of "Moral Monday" protests, would make it harder for North Carolina residents to vote, creating the most restrictive voter suppression law in the country.