This is a cross-post from the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO by Karen Hickey in AFL-CIO Field Communications.

The sun was shining on day two of the Walkerville, tent city protest for a fair and moral budget. The theme of the day was public education. Teachers and education staff were on hand throughout the day to answer questions about how Scott Walker’s proposed state budget will impact their classrooms and the children they teach.

Imagine one day you woke up and there were no sanitation workers to pick up the pile of stuff in your trash. No letter carriers or postal workers to move your mail. No teachers in the classrooms, no firefighters to stop your neighbor’s house—or yours—from burning to the ground.

Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich has taken hypocrisy to a new low. After months of pushing a bill to kill collective bargaining rights for public employees, he now has issued proclamations making this week “Public Service Appreciation Week”  and “Teacher Appreciation Week.” Seriously.

Nash Whaley and 13 of his classmates at a Louisville, Ky., high school learned a crucial life lesson of courage and displayed a strong sense of justice when they walked out of class earlier this month in support of their teachers and other public employees.

This is a cross-post from the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO by Karen Hickey in AFL-CIO Field Communications.

Stan Johnson, Sid Hatch and Mike Langyel were surprised when they were asked by Gov. Scott Walker’s staff representatives and the Milwaukee police department’s professional performance division to leave a press conference this afternoon on education reform.

We hope you will share this special AFL-CIO Now feature on the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire with your friends, family and co-workers as a way to recognize America’s workers, past and present, who have sacrificed and continue to sacrifice so much to improve the lives of all workers.

Wisconsin’s public employees have agreed to Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) demands for pension and health care concessions–but they won’t give up their right to bargain collectively, says Mary Bell, Wisconsin Education Association Council president.

This in from Organizing for America‘s Jessie Lidbury, live from Madison, Wis.:

“Protect our state!” came the cry from the Capitol streets. They were lined with workers, students and rights activists who hope that Gov. Walker and our state legislature will hear their voices above the noise of their own interests.

After daylong protests yesterday drew as many as 30,000 people in Madison, hundreds of Wisconsin workers, students and allies camped out last night in the Capitol Rotunda as a hearing on Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) budget bill that eliminates collective bargaining rights for nearly all of the state’s public service workers went past midnight.

How bad is the Republican federal budget proposal? AFL-CIO Legislative Director Bill Samuel describes it as an “all-out assault against middle-class Americans.”