AFT President Randi Weingarten says until Congress fixes No Child Left Behind (NCLB), President Obama’s waiving of NCLB requirements for states makes sense. Read the full statement here.

Former President Bill Clinton yesterday singled out the efforts of the union movement in creating massive numbers of jobs through union pension fund investments. Speaking yesterday at the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), Clinton praised the AFL-CIO and AFT for already providing $1 billion in pension fund investments to improve infrastructure and increase energy efficiency. (Watch the video of the event here. )

With Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid possibly on the budget cutting block, members of the Alliance for Retired Americans will celebrate the organization’s 10th anniversary this week by doing what they have done for a decade: fighting for for America’s seniors.

Most American children never receive any education about the union movement’s proper place in our country’s history and its many contributions to the nation’s development, according to a new report.

A strong public education system is central to achieving individual goals and restoring our nation’s economic strength–and  the teachers in AFT  are in a unique position to both prepare students for future opportunities and advocate for economic dignity as union members.

The AFL-CIO today is announcing a major “commitment to action” to bring public and private partners together to encourage both workers’ capital and skilled labor to promote large-scale investments in America’s infrastructure.

This is a cross post from AFT:

AFT President Randi Weingarten returned today from Egypt, where she met in Cairo with leaders of Egyptian unions instrumental in the recent political and governmental changes there. She noted that AFT, as part of its recognition of the vital role of public employees around the world, has joined with the Council of Global Unions in the worldwide “Quality Public Services—Action Now!” campaign. That effort was launched last week on United Nations Public Service Day.

The National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB’s) modest, common-sense proposed rule to remove roadblocks for workers who want to vote on whether to form a union has drawn praise from working men and women, political leaders and activists around the country.

Generation Y teachers—those in their mid-30s or younger—are eager to make a difference. But they quickly get burned out and are leaving the classroom at a rate 51 percent higher than more senior teachers. Not only does this turnover deprive schools of a new generation of educators, it costs school districts about $7 billion each year.

Under the phony flag of deficit reduction and budget repair, state lawmakers such as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) and others are attacking workers’ rights to bargain for middle-class jobs.