Check out the AFL-CIO's new In Our Communities website feature, "Recovering After Superstorm Sandy."

The recovery from Superstorm Sandy could be one of the most expensive in American history, with estimates climbingtoward the $50 billion mark in property damage alone. As Americans all across the country pitch in, most of the work repairing and rebuilding the storm-ravaged areas will be done by talented and hardworking union members. Many of the organizations dealing with Sandy’s devastation emphasize the importance of union workers’ expertise and skill, as well as of sufficient government financial support for rebuilding physical structures and roads and, in many cases, people's lives. Here is what our members have been doing to help with the recovery:

Working people up and down the East Coast are pitching in to alert people about the clean up efforts for Hurricane Sandy and provide information for transportation, shelter and other resources. Firefighters, public employees, utility workers, letter carriers, nurses, grocery store employees, hotel workers and others continued to work through the storm to make sure everyone is taken care of. Once again, we’re reminded that work connects us all, and we’re better together. Here are some unions and agencies you can follow on Twitter and Facebook who've been hard at work during the storm:

AFL-CIO unions reacting to presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s selection of Wisconsin’s Rep. Paul “End Medicare as We Know It” Ryan as his running mate say the Romney-Ryan ticket is the wrong choice for America.

Yesterday, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said, "Whether it's outsourcing American jobs or picking his running mate, Mitt Romney's proven just how bad his decision making is for working people. Aligning himself with the poster-child for ending Medicare and Social Security puts to rest any suggestion that Romney has a clue what the middle class needs. We're witnessing the radical Tea Party extremes drive the final nail in what was once the Republican Party."

Here’s what unions had to say:

Tomorrow, members of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) around the nation will join in the National Day of Action for Public Transportation organized by Occupy Boston. ATU President Larry Hanley says public transportation is critical to our nation’s economic recovery.

Cheerfully bobbing balloons and smiling transit workers greeted commuters Tuesday morning as they emerged from the Farragut West and Farragut North Metro stations in downtown Washington, D.C., to warn commuters of the impacts of cuts to mass transit funding in cities across the nation. 

Andy Richards on our Field Communications staff sends us this.

With the holidays only days away, Pittsburgh-area faith leaders, community members and union families came together Friday to hand bring holiday cheer and hand out hundreds of toys and donations to families in need.

AFL-CIO Field Communications Coordinator Andrew Richards files this report on the fight in Ohio to defeat Issue 2.

From small towns like Portsmouth on the banks of the Ohio River in the south to big cities like Cleveland bordering Lake Michigan in the north and all around the Buckeye State, union members are hitting the doors and the phone banks to make sure working families cast a “No” vote on Issue 2 Nov. 8.

New York area union members will join an expected several thousand labor activists and supporters today in a Wall Street march and rally in support of the Occupy Wall Street protesters.

Emmelle Israel, AFL-CIO Media Outreach fellow, is in Minneapolis for the Next Up Young Workers Summit and sends us this report.

Along with 800 young workers, students, and activists, I marched down the streets of downtown Minneapolis, calling for “Good Jobs Now!” during the 2011 AFL-CIO Next Up Young Workers Summit.

AFL-CIO Community Services liaison Mark Caddo at the Cincinnati AFL-CIO Labor Council tells us that despite a heat index of 103 degrees, union and community members recently turned out for a fundraising softball match between Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) locals 627 and 628.