This is a cross-post from Huffington Post by Stan Sorscher, labor representative for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace/IFPTE Local 2001 ( SPEEA /IFPTE).

A CEO, a Tea Party member and public employee sit at a table with 12 cookies on a plate. The CEO grabs 11 cookies and tells the Tea Party member, "You better watch him. He wants your cookie."

The CEO took 11 out of 12 cookies. This isn't a question of what's fair. The CEO has the economic power to take 11 cookies—and he does.

Thanks to the Institute for Policy Studies for this eye-opening chart showing how high child poverty is in the United States compared with other developed nations. The data is stunning—a U.S. child poverty rate of 23.1 percent, compared with 5.3 percent in Finland and 8.5 percent in Germany. Even the rate next worse to the United States—12.1 percent in the United Kingdom—is far lower. What really sets this chart apart, though, is the comparison with the percentage of those in the top 1%.

The Main Street Moment: Fighting Back to Save the American Dream , a new book by AFSCME President Gerald McEntee and Secretary-Treasurer Lee Saunders, examines the recent unprecedented attacks on workers’ rights, growing income inequality and how everyday people are fighting back against the 1%.

The nation’s growing income inequality recently has generated considerable attention—and has sparked a backlash by billionaires. TED’s Chris Anderson showed what a hot button issue it is when he tried to repress a video talk on the subject by venture capitalist Nick Hanauer. Hanauer, like billionaire investor Warren Buffett, supports increasing taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals for the good of the nation. Buffett and other billionaires have joined forces in a new pro-tax-increase-for-the-rich organization to assert: “ We are the 1 percent, we stand with the 99 percent .”

Now the issue has hit the presidential campaign trail.

Few would argue that the nation's increasing income inequality is a growing and dangerous concern. But for Chris Anderson, " curator " of the annual TED conference where hip people go to hear innovative talks, income inequality is a "partisan" issue that must not be discussed.

Moments ago, we launched the 2012 AFL-CIO Executive PayWatch site—now called CEO Pay and the 99% —which includes the most comprehensive data accessible on 2011 executive pay. All of the data available is searchable by industry, by state and by the top 100 highest-paid CEOs.

It pays to have friends in high places, especially at tax time. It paid well today for the wealthy when their close Republican U.S. Senate friends blocked action on the “ Buffett Rule .” The simple piece of tax legislation would require millionaires and billionaires to pay at the same tax rate most of us do.

The bill, known as the “Paying a Fair Share Act” (S.2230) failed (51-45) to get the 60 votes needed for passage. Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas were the only politicians to cross party lines.

While millions of 99% Americans continue to be jobless and the nation’s unemployment rate hovers around 8.3 percent, chief executive officers of the nation’s largest companies received a 2 percent pay raise last year. While that may not seem like much of an increase, it came on top of a 27 percent hike in 2010, according to a report in USA Today .

The median, or mid-point, pay of top executives was $9.6 million in 2011, USA Today reported, based on 138 companies in the Standard & Poor’s index of 500 largest companies whose pay data has been disclosed. As more CEO pay data becomes public, the AFL-CIO Executive PayWatch website, paywatch.org, will be updated with more complete data in mid-April.

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."

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.