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.

 

More than 1,800 Emergency Medical Services (EMS) workers employed by American Medical Response (AMR) in Northern California and 500 EMS workers at New England EMS voted last week to join AFSCME, while more than 900 telecom, health care and other workers chose a voice at work with AFL-CIO unions.

Kathy Ivy (see video), a paramedic in Contra Costa County with 18 years’ experience, said:

Toledo union members pitched in during United Way's Week of Caring to help build a home for a local family. Volunteers, including members of UAW Local 14 and AFSCME Local 544, along with AFL-CIO Labor Community Services liaisons Micheal Alexander and Laura Harrison, joined Habitat for Humanity on the project.

Volunteers, organized through United Way of Greater Toledo, helped install siding on the house. The entire project will take several months to complete. 

See more photos from the United Way of Greater Toledo's Week of Caring 2012.  

Friday’s ruling by Dane County Circuit Court Judge Juan Colas striking down the Wisconsin law (Act 10) that eliminated public employee collective bargaining rights, “Shows as we have said from day one,” says Wisconsin State AFL-CIO President Phil Neuenfeldt:

Scott Walker’s attempt to silence the union men and women of Wisconsin’s public sector was an immoral, unjust and illegal power grab. Now, a court has ruled that the essential provisions of Act 10, Scott Walker’s draconian attack on public worker’s right to collectively bargain, is unconstitutional. 

The women and men—mostly women—who care for our aging and ill relatives, providing both physical and emotional support, sometimes for many years, are among a workforce that has long been underpaid, overlooked and, all-too-often, looked down upon. Yet these home health aides, personal care assistants and domestic workers toil in occupations described by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics as among the fastest growing in the United States.

So what does this say about us as a nation?

Nearly 300 workers at Journey Mental Health Center in Madison, Wis., voted overwhelmingly to join AFSCME Council 40 last week. The two groups that chose AFSCME are the professional staff and the center’s paraprofessional workers. Journey is a private, non-profit organization and the workers provide mental health services at nine sites in Dane County.

Emergency medical service professionals, Ikea workers and green energy geothermal technicians are among the latest workers to choose AFL-CIO unions.

More than 150 paramedics, emergency medical technicians, nurses, fleet techs and vehicle supply techs at Rural/Metro of Northern California voted overwhelmingly last week to join AFSCME Local 491/United EMS Workers. They join the more than 400 Rural/Metro EMS professionals in Santa Clara County and the Medic Ambulance EMS workers in Solano County, who earlier this year voted to join AFSCME.

AFL-CIO unions reacting to presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s selection of Wisconsin’s Rep. Paul “End Medicare as We Know It” Ryan as his running mate say the Romney-Ryan ticket is the wrong choice for America.

Yesterday, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said, "Whether it's outsourcing American jobs or picking his running mate, Mitt Romney's proven just how bad his decision making is for working people. Aligning himself with the poster-child for ending Medicare and Social Security puts to rest any suggestion that Romney has a clue what the middle class needs. We're witnessing the radical Tea Party extremes drive the final nail in what was once the Republican Party."

Here’s what unions had to say:

New members were elected to the AFL-CIO Executive Council this morning. Sean McGarvey, president of the Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD), will fill the seat of former President Mark Ayers, and Laura Reyes, secretary-treasurer for AFSCME, will fill the seat of retiring AFSCME President Gerry McEntee. AFSCME President Lee Saunders was named chair of the Executive Council Political Committee.

In the iconic '70’s sitcom “The Brady Bunch,” whenever a dispute or conflict came up, it was eventually solved amicably and with a bit of common sense. You sure can’t say the same thing about another family sharing a big house—“The Boehner Bunch.”