A massive protest against Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s attempt to eliminate collective bargaining rights for state workers entered its second day in Madison with as many as 30,000 people, according to some estimates. More demonstrations are expected tomorrow.

Back when flight attendants were stewardesses and airline ads promoted their good looks and winsome smiles to get you on board, these hardworking airline employees had no job safety and health protection.  Today, flight attendants still are not covered by the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and most of his Republicans colleagues want to keep it that way, just like the old days.

The AFL-CIO and the Chamber of Commerce don’t agree on very much. But today, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Chamber President Thomas Donohue told a Senate committee that labor and business agree on the vital need to invest in the nation’s transportation infrastructure to create jobs and boost the economy.

More than 15,000 people, including public employees, union activists and community supporters, jammed into the Capitol Square in Madison, Wis., yesterday to protest Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) plan to strip away state workers’ rights and decimate family-supporting middle-class jobs. Some 3,000 massed inside the Capitol building where a hearing on the bill was under way.

The nation’s No. 1 priority is  getting the nation’s job-creation engine running again. But House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his gang instead have unveiled a budget plan that slams working families and is a “naked payback” to Wall Street CEOs, says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

Wisconsin college and high school students are showing their support for their teachers—and for all public employees—who are under fire by Gov. Scott Walker. Walker’s budget proposal attacks family-supporting middle-class jobs through unilateral pay and benefit cuts and takes away nearly all of the workers’ collective bargaining rights.

I have been writing about politics and legislation from a workers’ viewpoint for the better part of three decades. I still get angry and my blood pressure jumps when politicians come after workers and unions with the same old lies and bull crap that we are seeing today in states across the country. Just check out here, here and here what’s happening in Wisconsin.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told tens of thousands of workers that if they lose their jobs because of unfair trade practices tough luck, just pull yourselves up by your Chinese-made bootstraps.

Some 400 members from dozens of Minnesota unions—backed by more than 1,000 e-mails and phone calls—helped score a victory for working families last week. They jammed a state House hearing room in opposition to a bill that called for a wage freeze for state employees, elimination of vital parts of the state’s Public Employment Labor Relations Act, a 15 percent cut in the state workforce and a so-called “Right to Work” provision. 

Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), New Jersey Chris Christie (R) and politicians around the nation are running campaigns to demonize public employees and lay the blame for state budget problems at their feet.