Here's good news (from the Toledo Blade):

Demonstrating a tough line on trade with China, the Obama administration will file an unfair trade complaint today against China's new duties on some American-made cars and sport utility vehicles, including the Toledo-made Jeep Wrangler.

A senior administration official told The Blade Wednesday the United States will file the case with the World Trade Organization in Geneva, accusing China of putting illegal duties on $3.3 billion worth of U.S.-made auto imports.

Local unions, community leaders and working families rallied in Canton, Ohio, Monday at a Bring Jobs Home event after an announcement that TTI Floor Care vacuum bag plant will close all local production of Hoover vacuum bags. The rally addressed different ways elected officials can create good jobs and rebuild local communities hit hard by the recession. The United Steelworkers (USW), Electrical Workers (IBEW Local 1985) and the Hall of Fame Central Labor Council took part.

Larry Matheney, secretary-treasurer of the West Virginia AFL-CIO, wrote an Op-Ed Tuesday on economic patriotism, bringing quality manufacturing jobs back to America and supporting legislation that would  end  tax incentives to American corporations who send jobs overseas. 

Here is an excerpt:

In actions and events from Anchorage, Alaska, to Montgomery, Ala., thousands of working families and their unions are urging Congress to take action on the nation’s jobs crisis, part of the AFL-CIO’s Bring Jobs Home campaign.

Check out some of the events below and be sure to join them if they’re in your area. Can’t find anything nearby? Check out the full list of Bring Jobs Home events here.

Also, be sure to text JOBS to 235246 to get info and action alerts to help bring America's jobs home. (Message and data rates may apply.)

This is a cross-post by Stan Sorscher, labor representative for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace/IFPTE (SPEEA/IFPTE). An editorial in my local paper is a good example of how we trivialize our public discussion of globalization and trade policy. The editorial follows this logic: Trade is good. All trade is good. More trade is better than less trade. Maximum possible trade! Anyone who disagrees is protectionist or resentful.

Today, the United States Trade Representative announced that Mexico will be invited to join the negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement (TPP).  Although the U.S. already has extensive trade relations with Mexico through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says. Mexico’s inclusion in the TPP could have significant impacts on workers in both countries.

Despite promises made in the Colombian Action Plan Related to Labor Rights, Colombia continues to be the most dangerous place to be a union member.

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the main international trade union organization, just released its annual survey of violations of trade union rights. The report, which comes shortly after the Colombia Free Trade Agreement went into effect, summarizes violations of trade union rights around the world—and its findings on Colombia are grim.

Pacific Rim Cayman LLC, the mining company determined to extract gold along the banks of El Salvador’s Lempa River, has failed in its
attempt to use the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) to force the Salvadoran government to allow it to mine in the region. El Salvador has opposed Pacific Rim’s plans because the process threatens cyanide leakage into the Lempa River, whose basin covers 49 percent of the territory of El Salvador and is the main water source for a majority of the nation’s population.

The Department of Commerce's announcement of a preliminary countervailing duty (CVD) determination last week against wind towers from China is an important step in maintaining and expanding U.S. production in wind energy. Clean energy production and manufacturing have been a priority of the Obama administration. It also has been a target of the Chinese government’s five-year plan. U.S. trade actions need to be complimented by a manufacturing strategy.

The AFL-CIO and several individual unions, including the Machinists, the Steelworkers, Mine Workers and Food and Commercial Workers in recent days met with leadership of the new Colombian Labor Inspectorate and Department of Labor officials, to discuss how the inspectorate is working to promote and protect workers' rights in Colombia—and what it is doing to make sure workers who exercise their rights can do so without putting their lives on the line.