Brenda Loya in AFL-CIO Media Affairs sends us this from Alabama, where she will report on the delegation of African American labor and civil rights leaders as they investigate Alabama’s recently passed anti-immigrant law. Follow the delegation here.

With the passage of H.B. 56, Alabama has taken a huge step backward, into the 1950s. Today, an African American delegation of labor and civil rights leaders traveled to Birmingham, Ala., to help shed a light on what is seen as one of the harshest immigration laws in the country and how it invokes inhumanity reminiscent of the Jim Crow South.

Workers at the U.S. Army Human Resources Command in Ft. Knox, Ky., voted by a better than 3-to-1 margin to join AFGE. The more than 1,400 workers are Army civilian personnel specialists who provide human resources services to soldiers, veterans, retirees and Army families. They are part of the Army’s Human Resource Command.

Today, AFGE members who work for the Social Security Administration (SSA) and their allies are staging informational pickets outside some 140 Social Security offices around the nation. They are protesting huge proposed budget cuts that would severely impact services to the elderly, disabled and children.

Brian Pugh, deputy political director for the Hudson Valley Area Labor Federation, sends us this report.

The Hudson Valley Area Labor Federation celebrated the end of summer with a Brunch to Build Homes on behalf of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Newburgh. Dozens of union members took part in the Sept. 10 fundraiser on the Newburgh Waterfront and raised $2,000. Labor sponsors included the HVALF, the Wappingers Congress of Teachers, AFGE Local 3740, Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) Local 302, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1500 and Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 30.

As the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack approaches, the union movement remembers those who lost their lives, those who risked their lives to get others to safety and those who took part in the cleanup and rebuilding efforts that followed.

From the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), whose employess are represented by AFGE, to local workers answering emergency calls, government workers have been playing a major role in the cleanup effort of Hurricane Irene. Two of those workers, one in Rutland, Vt., and one in Princeton, N.J., lost their lives while trying to help keep their communiteis safe during the storm.

The Republican shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has thrown 4,000 FAA employees out of work, and some 70,000 construction workers employed on airport improvement projects can’t go to work because Republicans have blocked funding for the agency and the projects.

Mary Jane says she brought her hand-made sign “Rich Tax Dodgers Pay Your Fair Share” to Capitol Hill this afternoon because:

I’m extremely concerned about the debt ceiling deal. I’m extremely concerned that a “bipartisan” deal will mean big cuts for Social Security and Medicare.

Dozens of AFGE members, other union allies and activists protested outside the district offices of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA)  and Rep. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) last week. to bring attention to the lawmakers’ anti-worker, anti-middle class policies.

This is a cross post from the Solidarity Center.

For three U.S. trade unionists undertaking a 10-day learning and outreach tour to the Middle East and North Africa, meeting workers on the front lines of change has been inspirational.