Jim “Runt” Gregory served as financial secretary of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 727 in Calvert City, Ky., during the tenure of eight presidents.

“Presidents of the United States,” he said with a grin.

Jim “Runt” Gregory served as the financial secretary of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 727 in Calvert City, Ky., during the tenure of eight presidents.

“Presidents of the United States,” he said with a grin.

Bucking a trend that has seen private equity firms buy business to bleed then shut down, United Steelworkers (USW) members at three Wisconsin paper mills and KPS Capital Partners have reached a new four-year collective bargaining agreement that workers ratified today.

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. 

The son of a United Steelworkers (USW) member is leading a Murray (Ky.) State University student protest against their school's choice of U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell as this year's graduation speaker May 11. The lad is Devin Griggs, who won the outstanding labor youth award from the Kentucky State AFL-CIO at the state convention in 2011.

Fresh from a series of resounding legal victories, Mexican mine workers leader Napoleón Gómez has written a book that exposes the Mexican government’s seven-year campaign to destroy democratic unions and drive down workers’ wages. Gómez won the AFL-CIO’s Meany-Kirkland Human Rights Award in 2011.

As a nation, we need to face that fact that austerity simply does not work; our nation’s infrastructure will continue to crumble if we do not invest in its repair, and our economy will continue to stagnate if we do not expand our infrastructure to meet the needs of our growing population.

In just about any small town that has lost a big factory, you'll hear it was the union's fault. I live in Mayfield, Ky., population about 10,000. A big Continental General Tire plant was our factory. It’s been gone for a half-dozen years.

On Wednesday, top leaders of Brazil's largest trade union federation, Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT), including President Vagner Freitas, João Felicio and Artur Henrique, met with U.S. union leaders at the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C., to discuss strategies for joint action, priorities and partnerships moving forward.

Berry Craig, recording secretary for the Paducah-based Western Kentucky AFL-CIO Area Council and a professor of history at West Kentucky Community and Technical College, is a former daily newspaper and Associated Press columnist and currently a member of AFT Local 1360. Craig sends us this.

Retired Kentucky United Steelworkers (USW) member Jim Pence is doing his bit to help retire Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). “Social media is the way to go,” said Pence, who lives in Glendale, Ky., and belonged to USW Local 423 in Louisville. Pence has opened a pair of Facebook pages: Ditch Mitch and 1,000,000 Strong Against Senator Mitch McConnell in 2014.