Another Republican-manufactured fiscal crisis is fast approaching and it threatens the fragile economic recovery with the automatic, across–the-board sequestration budget cuts scheduled to kick in on March 1. Republicans have indicated they will block any attempt to stop the sequester unless there are benefit cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

But a majority of House Democrats late last week signed a House Progressive Caucus letter to President Obama opposing benefit cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Gloria Johnson, 85, a founding member and former president of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), died Feb. 13 at Southern Maryland Hospital Center in Clinton, Md. She also served as an AFL-CIO vice president. Says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka:

Gloria’s values and unapologetic stance for the full inclusion of women and minorities in the workplace and society will continue to inspire and improve the lives of working women and men….The barriers she broke and the foundations she helped lay will undoubtedly live on in history.

The Labor Innovation Fund for the Twenty-First Century, aka LIFT, a collaborative project of the AFL-CIO with the Ford Foundation, the Solidago Foundation and the New World Foundation, was recently highlighted by the Berger-Marks Foundation. LIFT gives grants to partnership projects, “conversations around common agendas," and other efforts to link the union movement with community organizing focused on workers’ rights, decent jobs and a fair economy.

Some 250 registered nurses at Sierra Medical Center in El Paso are the latest group of Texas nurses to vote to join the National Nurses Organizing Committee-Texas (NNOC-Texas), the Texas affiliate of National Nurses United (NNU). Sierra RN Nena Brown said the election:

Is a mandate by nurses at Sierra who are determined to improve the quality of patient care and be the strongest possible advocates for our patients and our community.

The announcement of the proposed merger between American Airlines—now in bankruptcy proceedings—and US Airways has drawn mixed reactions from the AFL-CIO unions, which represent workers at both airlines.

The National Federation of Nurses (NFN) will affiliate with AFT, the leaders of the two unions announced today. Some 34,000 registered nurses in Montana, Ohio, Oregon and Washington State are NFN members.

Today marks a sad anniversary for worker safety. Two years ago today, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) submitted the silica dust standard to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB).  

Don’t forget today is the National Call-In Day to tell Congress to stop another manufactured fiscal crisis that would put the fragile economic recovery in jeopardy and cost as many as 1 million of America's workers their jobs.

Call 888-659-9401 and tell your lawmakers:

• Protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid from benefit cuts.
• Repeal the “sequester” and close loopholes for Wall Street and the wealthiest 2% of Americans instead

Your voice needs to be heard because the automatic, across-the-board budget cuts in sequestration are scheduled to kick in on March 1.

It was no charming third time for former New Hampshire House Speaker William O’Brien (R) as the state House of Representatives decisively defeated (212-141) a "right to work" for less bill sponsored by O’Brien who no longer holds the speaker’s post.  

New Hampshire AFL-CIO President Mark MacKenzie called today’s vote “a strong rebuttal of ex-Speaker O'Brien's attacks on the middle class.” O’Brien championed the anti-worker measure in the past two sessions only to see it die both times.

Do you want to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid from benefit cuts? Do you want to close tax loopholes for the wealthy and corporations so they pay their fair share? Do you want to stop another Republican-manufactured fiscal crisis that would imperil the fragile economic recovery and cost as many as 1 million of America's workers their jobs?

Then join us in a National Call-In Day to Congress and tell your lawmakers: