The Alameda Labor Council and California Labor Federation are standing in solidarity with Occupy Oakland’s Nov. 2 Day of Action. In a message to activists, council Executive Secretary-Treasurer Josie Camacho says working families are “inspired by the spirit of the fight against Wall Street.”

Both the U.S. House and the Senate are expected to vote today on a trio of job-killing trade deals with Korea, Colombia and Panama. There’s still time to call your representative at 1-800-718-1008 and your senators at 202-224-3121 and urge them to vote “No” on the three trade deals.

The failing economy has caused wealth for black households to all but disappear, according to a shocking new report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Since 1983, median wealth for black households fell by nearly two-thirds from $6,300 to $2,200 in 2009—a decrease of more than 65 percent.

The U.S.-China trade deficit has eliminated or displaced nearly 2.8 million jobs, mainly in manufacturing, following that country’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, according to a study released today. View an interactive map of jobs lost throughout the United States here.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) and his Republican/tea party supporters—the same gang that eliminated basic democratic rights of cities and towns by imposing a “financial martial law”—are at again. This time they are pushing a so-called right to work law as the answer to state’s foundering economy.

The road to economic growth and a full recovery lies in allowing the deficit to grow temporarily and investing in programs that put money in the hands of consumers, two nonpartisan experts said. 

America’s jobs crisis is hitting college grads especially hard, with new graduates less likely to get a job than they were 10 years ago. If they do find work, the job will pay less, on average, than jobs in 2000, according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Read the report here.

Last year, researchers Nicole and Mark Crain conducted a study that claimed federal regulations cost businesses $1.75 trillion a year. Included in that total is the assertion that Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations cost businesses $65 billion a year. But the study is fundamentally flawed, says John Irons, Economic Policy Institute’s (EPI’s) director of policy and research.

The Bush-era tax cuts shifted the burden of funding vital government services like food inspection and air traffic control onto the already struggling middle class, according to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).

The nation gained 117,000 jobs in July while the U.S. unemployment rate dropped slightly from 9.2 percent in June to 9.1 percent last month, according to Department of Labor data released this morning. Analysts had predicted jobs would grow by about 90,000 in July.