Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) Executive Director Lowell Peterson describes how the WGAE model offers workers both a militant union and a professional association.

Recent ideologically driven attacks on collective bargaining have inspired a national conversation about the role of organized labor in 21st century America. The headlines have focused on teachers and other public employees, on whether it is unseemly for people who work for the government to assert any rights on the job. But the same hard-right forces that want to wipe out public-sector unions oppose the very idea that employees can band together to advance their own interests. There are so many ways to rebut the shrill complaints about organized labor—so many good things unions have done for the average American over the course of decades. But perhaps this is a good opportunity for us to take stock of ourselves, to examine where we are today and what we might need to do to remain relevant in the future.

Across the nation and around the world today–and throughout the week–working people are saying, We Are One with workers whose rights and middle-class jobs are under attack in Wisconsin, Ohio and elsewhere by Republican governors and legislators. They are also honoring the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s death. He was gunned down fighting for the same rights for Memphis, Tenn., sanitation workers.

Around the nation today and this week union members, civil rights, community and faith activists are saying, “We are One” with working people in Wisconsin and dozens of other states where well-funded, right-wing corporate politicians are trying to take away workers’ right. As Domestic Workers United founder Ai-Jen Poo says in this new video:

If we don’t have a strong labor movement we don’t have a voice for justice.

A new poll finds the majority of Ohio voters, like their Wisconsin counterparts, oppose their governor’s moves to take away the right of public employees to bargain for middle-class jobs. And for good reason, as this fantastic New York Times piece points out today.

Small business owners have come out in strong support of Wisconsin public employees in their battle against Gov. Scott Walker’s moves to take away their right to bargain to improve their lives.

Proving once again that state Senate Republicans don’t believe in democracy, Wisconsin Sen. Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald yesterday said the votes of state Senate Democrats won’t count.

Solid majorities in two Republican Senate districts support the recall of their senators, according to a poll by Survey USA, with Greg Sargent reporting on the findings. From Sargent:

When asked if they would vote for [Randy] Hopper or some[one] else if a recall election were held right now, 54 percent said they’d vote for someone else, versus only 43 percent who said they’d vote for Hopper.

Indiana House Democrats tonight told Hoosier voters they are going to stand firm and fight to save the state’s  middle class. During a telephone town hall meeting, the representatives said Gov. Mitch Daniels’ radical anti-worker agenda would destroy the state’s schools and local economies.

A Bloomberg National Poll just out finds that 64 percent of Americans, including a plurality of Republicans, oppose Republican-led efforts to take away the right of workers to bargain for good middle-class jobs. The poll also finds public employees are viewed favorably by a large majority: 72 percent, compared with 17 percent who have an unfavorable view.

This from AFL-CIO Political Communications Director Eddie Vale.

Just one day after a media stunt that blew up in his face, further uniting Senate Democrats and Wisconsin’s working families against him, Scott Walker is facing the prospect of mass defections as Senate Republicans are no longer willing to tolerate his extreme power grab and bear the albatross of a Walker disapproval number—which is threatening to crack 60 percent. One former Senate Republican aide even penned a memo advising Republicans “to wake up before their own districts disappear in the rear-view” and get off Walker’s rapidly sinking ship.