Some 450 office clerical workers—members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union ( ILWU ) Local 63—are back on the job this morning in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., after the ILWU and port employers reached a tentative agreement Tuesday night that will prevent the outsourcing of jobs.

A new report by Josh Bivens and Andrew Fieldhouse of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI)  and The Century Foundation (TCF)  shows how ending Bush tax cuts for the richest Americans could lead to 2 million more jobs in 2013 and 1.4 million more jobs in 2014.

The EPI report explains what economists already know about tax cuts for the wealthy—they are extremely ineffective in creating jobs.

EPI shows how we could end these wasteful tax cuts for the wealthy, use half of the savings to reduce the deficit and use the other half to create jobs in much more effective ways.

The economy added 171,000 new jobs in October—the 32nd straight month of positive job growth—according to figures released this morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The nation’s unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 7.9%, up slightly from September’s 7.8%. The labor force grew by more than half a million workers in October, which is a positive sign, as more workers are seeking and finding jobs. The number of discouraged and involuntary part-time workers has fallen since last year.  

The newly created jobs exceeded most economists’ predictions of 100,000 to 125,000 new jobs for the month. Also, September payrolls were revised to a gain of 148,000 from an initially reported 114,000, and August to 192,000 from 142,000.

In Monday night’s presidential debate, when Mitt Romney boldly proclaimed that the U.S. Navy has fewer ships today than it did in 1916, President Obama reminded him that the Navy’s 21st century mission is far different and the fleet’s capabilities are far greater.

But with the election in two weeks, Republicans twisted President Obama’s barbed response to Romney as a grievous insult to the Navy and a threat to the men and women who are continuing to build the world’s most modern naval warfare force ever. 

Mitt Romney won’t come to “ Bainport ” and meet with the workers whose jobs are being  shipped overseas by Sensata Technologies . Sensata is owned by outsourcing pioneer Bain Capital, where Romney was a founder and former CEO.

But Tuesday, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) visited the tent city set up across the street from the Freeport, Ill., Sensata plant that will shut down as soon as the rest of the equipment follows the 170 middle-class jobs on the way to China—where Sensata workers earn about 99 cents an hour.

This new video from the United Steelworkers (USW) exposes how Mitt Romney and Bain Capital are profiting by selling out America's workers and shipping U.S. jobs to China.

In 2010, the Bain Capital-controlled Sensata Technologies bought Honeywell’s automotive onboard sensor business, including a Freeport, Ill., plant, where 170 workers were making a middle-class living. Says Tom Gaulrapp:

They came in and introduced the transition team, and the next bullet in the meeting was, “By the way, by the end of 2012 all the jobs in this plant will be moved to China.” 

This is a cross-post from the Communications Workers of America (CWA).

The presidential campaigns continue to duel over Mitt Romney’s pledge to gut the funding future of public broadcasting. Today, Mitt Romney responded to the Obama campaign’s new “Big Bird” ad by once again missing the point regarding public broadcasting’s economic benefits to the nation. Says CWA Senior Director George Kohl:

Well, Mr. Romney, federal funding of public broadcasting directly supports 21,000 good American jobs.

We learned a lot of things about Mitt Romney during last night's debate. Not only does he want to continue the failed economic policies that brought on the recession in the first place, but he also wants to hand our feathered friend Big Bird the pink slip to continue tax breaks for the wealthiest people (the math doesn't add up). The candidates talked a lot about taxes, education and social insurance programs, but what we really enjoyed about the debates last night was listening to working people on Twitter and on our AFL-CIO Now blog's live chat . 

Read the entire live chat thread below and check out some of the top comments and insights from our readers:

Why does Romney keep saying what his plan isn't? 5 weeks out, we deserve specifics #LetsDebate

— Liz McElroy (@lizmcelroy) October 4, 2012

We know that Mitt Romney holds the 47% of us who are low-income workers, students, retirees, military families and others in pretty low regard. He even said, “[M]y job is not to worry about those people.” And when Romney talks about workers with good middle-class public service jobs, he mocks firefighters, teachers and other public employees and says, “It’s time for us to cut back” on those jobs.  

The San Diego County sanitation worker who picks the trash from Romney's $12 million oceanfront mansion has something to say about that.

 

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan may be spending a lot of time on bus tours between now and Election Day, but their proposals for the nation’s transit systems would leave millions waiting for a ride. A new website RomneyWrecksTheBus.com from the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department (TTD) outlines just how ugly a wreck Romney’s proposed 46% cut in federal transit funding would cause.