AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka today said our national security depends on reviving the nation’s manufacturing and industrial base. He called for adding 4 million manufacturing jobs and eliminating the trade deficit within five years.  

In a wide-ranging speech at the Center for National Policy (CNP), Trumka said economic strength is crucial to America’s national security and economic standing, and manufacturing is central to economic strength. That’s a connection that most people understand, he said.

Today is Teacher Appreciation Day and A.J. Kelinheksel tweets:

Today I'm thinking about Mrs. Blas-Murphy. She always took my opinions seriously. I realize now how hard that must have been.

You can thank a teacher today by tweeting your thoughts with the hashtag #thankateacher and retweet to @AFTunion.

The Center for American Progress, Campus Progress and the USAction Education Fund released new reports today that detail what an increase in the interest rate on Stafford student loans would mean for several states.

If Congress doesn’t act, the interest rate on these loans will double—from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent—on July 1.

Every seven minutes somewhere in America a child is bullied, and 160,000 students a day stay home from school because they fear being bullied. On Friday, May 4, students, teachers and school administrators across the nation will Stand 4 Change to send this simple but powerful message:

Bullying is not acceptable in our schools or in our communities.

Today in his weekly address to the nation, President Obama reiterated his call to Congress to act quickly to prevent interest rates on student loans for some 7.5 million students from doubling on July 1.

Instead, over the past few years, Republicans in Congress have voted against new ways to make college more affordable for middle-class families, and voted for huge new tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires—tax cuts that would have to be paid for by cutting things like education and job-training programs that give students new opportunities to work and succeed.

Earlier this year, it looked like a battle was brewing between Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and the Cleveland Teachers Union (CTU). Jackson’s school reform plan would have eliminated collective bargaining and a number of other workplace provisions for teachers. But CTU leaders, Jackson and other education advocates worked together to find common ground and to keep their focus on the kids.

Bruce Springsteen has chronicled a working-class world through the eyes of young dreamers full of hope and ambition and those beaten down by an economy that has shuttered factories and shattered dreams--a musical indictment of economic injustice. But to many young people, Bruce is their parents’ music. University of Wisconsin professor Craig Werner is opening up Springsteen’s world to a new generation.

Bruce Springsteen has chronicled a working-class world through the eyes of young dreamers full of hope and ambition and those beaten down by an economy that has shuttered factories and shattered dreams--a musical indictment of economic injustice. But to many young people, Bruce is their parents’ music. University of Wisconsin professor Craig Werner is opening up Springsteen’s world to a new generation.

Plumbers and Steamfitters (UA) Local 184 and West Kentucky Community and Technical College (WKCTC) earned national recognition for partnering to provide a unique "going green" training program for the union's apprentices and journeymen. The Paducah, Ky., union and school plan to follow up with a two-year college degree program for Local 184 members.

This is a cross-post from the California Labor Federation's Labor's Edge blog.

California was built with a vision that prioritized investments in our future. From creating a world-class infrastructure to seeding innovation through our schools and universities, investments fueled the economic miracle that once was our state. But as those investments dried up in recent years, we’ve risked tearing the very fabric of California.

It’s time to chart a different course.

[On Tuesday], the California Labor Federation and the state Building and Construction Trades Council unveiled labor’s new “Invest in California” jobs plan, which focuses on renewing the state’s commitment to innovation and investments that built an economy of broadly shared prosperity.