I'm the blog editor and social media manager at the AFL-CIO. Interviewing union musicians was my introduction to the labor movement. My first job after graduating college was in Syracuse, New York, where I wrote and edited the International Musician, the monthly magazine for the American Federation of Musicians (AFM). Protecting Social Security and Medicare from benefit cuts brought me to Washington, D.C., where I spent two years as a new media coordinator at the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. I came to the AFL-CIO in the summer of 2012, just in time to re-elect President Barack Obama. When I'm not tweeting about America's unions, it's likely I'm watching Syracuse basketball and football.
The National Farm Workers' Confederation (CNC) and United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Canada signed a historic agreement to ensure the rights of migrant agriculture workers are protected and defended in Mexico, Canada and the United States, reports UFCW Canada.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W-Va.) introduced the Medicare Drug Savings Act of 2013 that would produce savings without passing on costs to seniors.
The act offers a worthwhile alternative to this approach, strengthening the Medicare program’s fiscal footing while shielding beneficiaries from harmful cost-shifting. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that restoration of Medicaid-level drug rebates for low-income Medicare beneficiaries would save the federal government $141 billion over 10 years. As federal budget negotiations continue, we urge you to consider the following critical facts:
While reports are still coming in about the tragedy at the Boston Marathon, Fire Fighters (IAFF) union sends us this update:
Boston Fire and EMS Detailed to Scene of Explosions at Boston Marathon.
Saru Jayaraman, co-director and co-founder of ROC-United, will appear on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" tonight at 10 p.m. EDT to discuss the importance of raising the tipped minimum wage for our country's 10 million restaurant workers.
If you have HBO, be sure to tune in.
In case you missed it, AFSCME President Lee Saunders and AFSCME members who were part of the sanitation strike in Memphis, Tenn., in 1968 were interviewed on "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams."
Watch the video in the blog and check out the USA Today column, Renewing King's Fight for Black Justice, by Saunders, the Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III.
Missouri's working families are speaking out about a paycheck deception bill that is moving through the state legislature. We Are Missouri launched a new Tumblr blog, Working Voices, that showcases personal messages from Missouri working families to their elected representatives, asking them to reject the anti-worker agenda of the state legislature. In this year's session, Republicans in the legislature have pursued an agenda that includes paycheck deception, attacks on prevailing wage laws, and "right to work" for less proposals that are part of what We Are Missouri describes as a larger national plan to assault the rights of workers.
Listen to teachers and utility, grocery store and factory workers (and more) talk about how paycheck deception will hurt working people.
Check out We Are Missouri's Working Voices Tumblr for more stories.
We Are Missouri is asking state residents to call their state representatives and tell them to reject the paycheck deception bill at 1-888-907-9711.
My brother David has always had the special spark in our family.
Like our two older brothers, David served in the military. When he got out, he started a small business—and when that one didn't work out, he started another one. He couldn't imagine an America where he wasn't living by his wits every single day.
Thousands of working families rallied at the U.S. Capitol yesterday to support a commonsense immigration process that will include a road map to citizenship for the nation's 11 million aspiring Americans.
See the tweets from yesterday below from AFL-CIO Latino and AFL-CIO digital strategist Jessica Morales, along with other ally groups.
Change your Facebook and Twitter avatars.
Today is Equal Pay Day, and groups representing working women from around the country are talking about the importance of closing the pay gap, once and for all.
The National Women's Law Center is hosting a blogger carnival on Equal Pay Day. See the full list of blogs here.
Retired ironworker Travis Witt from Local 301 (Charleston, W.Va.) shared the photo, left, on the Ironworkers' Facebook page of a car he designed with the union's logo.
Sign the pledge to fight for a common-sense immigration process that creates a road map to citizenship for aspiring Americans.
Click here »
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