Terry Davis, the AFL-CIO Community Service liaison from the Central Alabama Labor Federation in Birmingham, sends us this update on how unions are continuing their outreach to help the victims last month’s series of deadly tornadoes.

After the worst tornadoes in recent U.S. history tore through Alabama and across the southern United States last month, union members by the hundreds immediately began to do what we do best—mobilizing and organizing to help people in need.

The 67 workers who provide technical hookups for broadcasts and conferencing services at the United Nations are waging a battle for justice and respect.

The workers, members of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 1212, say they are being pressured by a contractor and the United Nations to accept drastic staff reductions that could pit union members against each other and endanger the economic security of employees nearing retirement. Ironically, the International Labor Organization (ILO), an arm of the United Nations, establishes international labor standards to protect workers’ rights.

Father Tony Shonis includes the  the local central labor council on his pastoral rounds wherever the church sends him. Says Shonis:

“I come from a union family. Both of my parents retired with a pension from the union. My father was in the Bakery and Confectionery [Tobacco] Workers [and Grain Millers] union and my mother was in the old ILGWU [International Ladies' Garment Workers Union, now UNITEHERE!]. From them, I learned what the union means to a working family and how civic minded union members are.”

The Machinists ratified a new three-year contract with Alaska Airlines—and more news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,300 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.

This is a cross-post from the Electrical Workers (IBEW.)

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has affirmed a lower court’s ruling upholding project labor agreements (PLAs) on state-funded construction projects.

Blaine Logan’s picture of a fellow Electrical Workers (IBEW) member clad in a fire retardant suit and face shield as he reaches into a tight spot to place a weld on a carbon steel refinery conduit was the runaway winner in the 2010 IBEW Photo of the Year contest.

Workers at a General Electric’s (GE’s) refrigerator plant in Bloomington, Ind., have been fighting to keep the facility viable in the cutthroat global economy. Now, two years after the company said it was going to shutter the plant, workers are celebrating a new day. Instead of closing the plant, GE has announced it will invest $93 million in upgrades and begin to produce energy-efficient refrigerators at the plant.

When workers decide they want to come together and form unions, it’s a well-documented fact that management is none too happy about it.