AFL-CIO Media Outreach fellow Luis Santoyo sends us this report from the battleground state of Virginia. 

Since June, workers with United Steelworkers (USW) Local 8888 have diligently passed out election-related fliers to their co-workers outside the Newport News Shipbuilding shipyard in southeastern Virginia.

True to their commitment to get worker-friendly candidates elected on Nov. 6, Local 8888 members stood outside the shipyard early Saturday ready to greet and encourage their fellow co-workers to vote for former Gov. Tim Kaine and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) who, respectively, are running for the U.S. Senate and Virginia’s 3rd Congressional District. Both candidates joined the shipyard workers early Saturday morning.

After a monthlong journey through 26 American cities, the Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity finally arrived in Washington, D.C., Monday afternoon. Caravaneros, as members of the Caravan are known, descended their bus, parked in front of AFL-CIO headquarters, holding up signs with pictures of their disappeared loved ones, chanting:

“¡Vivos se los llevaron!, ¡vivos los queremos!” (They took them alive! We want them alive!)

After a hot and busy summer, Union Summer intern Olivia Montesano is now back to pursuing a master’s degree in justice studies with a heavy focus on community organizing at Arizona State University. She’s back to reading about people around the world organizing their communities to make a difference.

Two years ago on Aug. 5., a San José copper-gold mine located in Chile’s northern Atacama Desert, caved in, trapping 33 miners 2,257 feet underground. “The 33,” as they were quickly known around the world, survived a staggering 69 days underground before their rescue.

A question Cuahuctemoc Salinas often gets when he tells carwash customers about the poor working conditions carwash workers experience is “So why are they still working here?”

To which he replies:

They’re afraid. Jobs are sacred right now. They have to provide for their families.