Neidi Dominguez, an organizer with the CLEAN Carwash Campaign, sends us this excerpt from her opinion column on Politics 365. 

When President Obama announced in June that he would grant certain young, undocumented immigrants the opportunity to avoid deportation and work legally in the United States, thousands of people felt the cloud of stress and fear, which shadows our lives, begin to lift. That announcement was an important step to advance the rights of aspiring citizens in this country. 

Ann Hernandez gets up at 4:30 a.m. every day to deliver the Los Angeles Times newspaper to Martin Sheen's neighborhood...and he thinks that’s pretty cool. Hernandez works 365 days a year—even Christmas. Check out Sheen’s thank you video and visit www.aflcio.org/ThankYou to upload your own video or send an e-card, thanking someone whose work you appreciate.

Stacey Hendler Ross, communications director of the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council, sends us this. 

Through rap, “spoken-word” poetry and music, one strong message permeated a room full of supporters for a November ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage in San Jose, Calif.: “It’s time for $10.” The event, held at IBEW Local 332 featured AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler who flew in from Washington, D.C., to throw her support behind the campaign. Shuler's labor roots are with IBEW Local 125 in Oregon.

Shuler offered her unwavering endorsement of the minimum wage increase as she lauded the group of young activists who launched the effort to create an ordinance mandating a $10 an hour minimum wage in San Jose. The current California state minimum is $8.

This is an excerpt from The Hill, by John Logan, professor and director of labor and employment studies at San Francisco State University.

Conservative activists in California are promoting a deceptive ballot proposition that would increase the ability of business groups and billionaires to dominate state elections. The measure, Proposition 32, claims to be an even-handed effort at campaign finance reform—but nothing could be further from the truth. Prop. 32 (or “Stop Special Interest Money Now,” as its big money supporters prefer to call it) would cripple the ability of unions to participate in politics but have little or no impact on unlimited spending by corporate executives and other wealthy individuals.

Our union brothers and sisters understand this isn't a “they,” it’s an “us,” says Bill Camp, executive secretary of the Sacramento [Calif.] Central Labor Council, of the shooting at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis., that killed six people and wounded four. This Sunday, the labor council is coordinating with area groups to hold a candlelight vigil for the victims of the shooting at the state Capitol at 1315 10th St., in Sacramento. The vigil will start at 6 p.m. People are encouraged to bring their own candles.

This is a cross-post from Labor's Edge by Rebecca Band of the California Labor Federation.

For decades, performers have been coming together in unions to bargain for fair protections and decent working conditions. And this year, actors and performers took their collective voice to the next level by voting overwhelmingly to merge the two biggest entertainment and media industry unions—Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA)—into one big union, SAG-AFTRA. Actress Gabrielle Carteris, who starred as Andrea Zuckerman on the original series Beverly Hills, 90210, has been actively involved with the merger for nearly two years, a process which she describes as “exciting, challenging, inspiring and historic.” Carteris spoke with Labor's Edge for a Q and A on the merger and her involvement in the labor movement. 

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

There is no issue more important in California and America right now than jobs. All of us know someone struggling to find one—you might even be struggling to find one yourself. So why is our tax money helping to ship jobs to other countries?

The bankruptcies of California cities Stockton and San Bernardino weren’t caused by unions, Washington Post op-ed columnist Harold Meyerson points out in a new column, “Bankrupt Cities? Don’t Blame Unions.” Contrary to reporting on the subject, the bankruptcies of these two cities were caused by Big Banks “peddling subprime mortgages to poorly paid workers.”

Thousands of quality construction and warehouse/operations jobs are coming to Oakland’s hardest-hit communities, thanks to a recent Oakland City Council decision to redevelop an army base that closed decades ago.

Josie Camacho, executive secretary-treasurer of the Alameda Labor Council, which helped lead a labor-community campaign for jobs, said:

The redevelopment of the Oakland Army Base is a surefire way to kick-start job creation in the construction sector, while also creating a wealth of new jobs to maintain operations on the base. And the vital labor standards that are guaranteed by last night’s vote will benefit all Oakland residents and communities.

More than 400 immigrants, many of them domestic workers, rallied in Sacramento yesterday for workers’ rights and other important issues to mark California’s 16th annual Immigration Day.