House Republicans are playing chicken again with our economy, says AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department President Edward Wytkind on The Huffington Post.

Instead of moving a highway and transit bill that will put Americans to work—a move the Senate was able to pull off by a vote of 74 to 26—House leaders want to punt with another short-term extension.

There is an easy solution to this problem—the House can take up the Senate's bipartisan bill (MAP-21) and put millions to work and improve our surface transportation system. President Obama will sign that bill tomorrow.

A new report sheds light on how the shrinking middle class can be tied to a growing decline of America’s roads, bridges, transit systems and energy grids—because "high levels of economic inequality have distorted our democratic process."

A week ago, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told reporters his plan was to take up the Senate’s bipartisan highway bill, which will create or save nearly 3 million jobs. Now he refuses.

This is a cross-post from the California Labor Federation's Labor's Edge blog.

California was built with a vision that prioritized investments in our future. From creating a world-class infrastructure to seeding innovation through our schools and universities, investments fueled the economic miracle that once was our state. But as those investments dried up in recent years, we’ve risked tearing the very fabric of California.

It’s time to chart a different course.

[On Tuesday], the California Labor Federation and the state Building and Construction Trades Council unveiled labor’s new “Invest in California” jobs plan, which focuses on renewing the state’s commitment to innovation and investments that built an economy of broadly shared prosperity.

The U.S. Senate today passed (77-22) a bipartisan surface transportation bill. The two-year, $100 billion funding bill will create hundreds of thousands of jobs and help build and maintain the nation’s highways, roads, bridges and transit systems. The current funding runs out March 31. The bill now goes to the House, which introduced a job-killing, partisan version earlier this year.

Here’s a bipartisan solution: Labor and management working together to create jobs.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told more than 400 leading investors at the Investor Summit on Climate Risk & Energy Solutions at the United Nations today that “The American labor movement is in the problem-solving business—looking for profitable investment opportunities that address climate risk and create jobs.”

The Ironworkers today send us this video of their action at the South Capitol Street Bridge in Washington D. C., with the Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) during last week’s AFL-CIO’s Infrastructure Investment Day of Action. The actions highlighted dozens of bridges across the nation in desperate need of repair and called on Congress to put millions of Americans back to work rebuilding the nation’s crumbling bridges and roads.

From actions drawing thousands in major cities to those with dozens in smaller towns, working families, jobless workers, community members and Occupy activists across the nation yesterday marched and rallied at dozens of bridges in desperate need of repair and called on Congress put millions of Americans back to work rebuilding the nation’s crumbling bridges and roads.

Rebuilding the nation’s crumbling infrastructure of roads, bridges and highways is a sure-fire way to create jobs and boost the economy. Thursday, Nov. 17, union members, community allies and jobless workers will take part in a national Infrastructure Investment Day of Action at dozens of bridge around the country that are in desperate need of repair.