Detroit’s bankruptcy filing “must not be used as a tool to impoverish city of Detroit workers or retirees,” says the AFL-CIO Executive Council, in a statement from its July meeting.

City workers already have made severe concessions to keep the city afloat. They are not to blame for Detroit’s financial problems, yet they have been making sacrifices all along the way to help the city out….The AFL-CIO will continue to support our city of Detroit active and retired members in their fight to maintain dignity on the job, a safe workplace, fair wages and benefits for their labor, and against cuts in the pensions they have paid for and earned.

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.)

Low-wage workers in seven cities Monday will walk off their jobs in several prominent fast food chains and retail outlets to demand a living wage, the right to form unions and an end to what they say are unfair labor practices.

The strike will come on the heels of a new report released by the National Employment Law Project (NELP). The report says although companies claim these low-wage jobs are a step toward good careers, opportunities to advance are limited for front-line workers in the fast-food industry. 

industry. 

Workers at the WCA Car Wash in Soundview in South Central Bronx, N.Y, voted unanimously to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). Their victory builds on the momentum that has seen workers at seven New York City carwashes vote for a voice at work and two recent successful contract ratifications as part of the WASH New York campaign.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee yesterday voted (13–9) to send the nominations of Nancy Schiffer and Kent Hirozawa for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to the full Senate for a confirmation vote. The vote will likely be next week.

With the debate in Washington set to return to the budget and the economy after the August congressional recess, President Obama today said, “The stakes for our middle class could not be higher.” In the first of several speeches set for coming weeks on the economy, Obama told the audience at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., that because of a Republican-led "endless parade of distractions, political posturing and phony scandals, Washington has taken its eye off the ball."

A new poll released today finds that 80% percent of Americans—including 62% of Republicans and 80% of Independents—support raising the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour and indexing it to the cost of living. It was last raised to $7.25 an hour in 2009.

The release of the poll came as low-wage workers and community, faith, union and other allies are staging a National Day of Action calling for passage of Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013.

Click here to sign our petition asking Congress to raise the minimum wage.

Having a job, says this new video (after the jump) from the Laborers (LIUNA), is not the end goal itself, but something that traditionally puts workers on a path to prosperity and opened the door to the American Dream. But, that was likely more true for your parents and grandparents because:

Since the 1950s, the so-called right to work movement has been trying to weaken your power and the power of unions, which results in lower wages and living standards.

Watch the full video after the jump.

The federal minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 an hour since July 24, 2009, and tomorrow, in a national day of action in more than 30 cities across the country, a broad coalition of labor, faith, civil rights, community and policy activists will call on Congress to raise the minimum wage.

Click here to sign our petition asking Congress to raise the minimum wage.

Before Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) and his hand-picked emergency manager Kevyn D. Orr rushed the city’s bankruptcy filing to federal court last week, they refused to sit down and discuss the future of the city’s workers and retirees, AFSCME President Lee Saunders said this morning on "The Bill Press Show." He told Press:

They have not sat down and talked with the union at all in Detroit. They have refused to do so, to talk about how these issued can be resolved. They have said they’ve attempted to have these kinds of discussions. That is a bold-faced lie.