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.

Celebrate Labor Day. Really, celebrate. It’s important.

Wear a T-shirt announcing to the world the name of your union and march in a parade, chanting and whooping it up about how glad you are to belong to an organization whose members are devoted to looking out for each other. If you’re among those without a union, proclaim your profession and declare your pride in the hard work you do. Make some happy noise. Infect your fellow marchers with your zeal.

With the economy in crisis, many of the nation’s  religious leaders are speaking out in favor of economic policies that create jobs and spur economic growth. Decent jobs at decent wages are the best path out of poverty and restoring growth is a powerful way to reduce deficits, they say.

President Obama will join AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and tens of thousands of workers at the nation’s biggest Labor Day celebration in Detroit on Sept. 5, the White House announced today.

Are you looking for a way to honor the nation’s workers—and those millions of workers who have lost their jobs—this Labor Day? Check out this new AFL-CIO video and then share it with your friends via e-mail, Facebook or Twitter.

The nation’s ailing economy needs a prescription powerful enough to heal the jobs crisis and America’s working families need an independent political voice that’s not beholden to parties or politicians, says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

While most of us battened down our hatches as Hurricane Irene rolled up the East Coast this weekend, thousands of public- and private-sector workers put themselves in harm’s way to keep us safe.

This Labor Day, it is more important than ever to show the strength of working families.

Union Plus, part of Union Privilege, the consumer benefits arm of the AFL-CIO, is inviting all working people to come together online to show America our strength and solidarity. If you support American workers, join other working people and be counted on the Union Plus Solidarity Map. The goal is to have 10,000 participants on Labor Day, Sept. 5.

Labor Day 2011 is just around the corner and America’s workers are still suffering through the worst economic crisis since the Depression. Some 25 million Americans are unemployed, underemployed or have stopped looking for work, and wages are essentially flat.