The French-based sugar and starch maker Roquette Frères opened its production plant in Keokuk, Iowa, 20 years ago, and its promise to create high-quality jobs was a key factor in winning support from local workers and local and state governments. Over the years, the firm has enjoyed tens of millions of dollars in tax benefits and other financial help.

The new year started with better but not great news on the jobs front. The latest figures from the U.S. Department of Labor released this morning show that unemployment dropped from 9.8 percent in November to 9.4 percent in December.

California Labor Federation Legislative Advocate Mitch Seaman points out how California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa is busy catering to his rich corporate donors rather than representing the people in his congressional district.

In this cross-post from http://robertreich.org/, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich shames those who attack public employees and questions why Republicans never include the richest people in America when they talk about sacrifice?

In 1968, 1,300 sanitation workers in Memphis went on strike. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. came to support them. That was where he lost his life. Eventually Memphis heard the grievances of its sanitation workers. And in subsequent years millions of public employees across the nation have benefited from the job protections they’ve earned.

Our friends at the Transport Workers (TWU) have taken a light-hearted video look at rather serious subject: how Republicans might use their new found congressional strength and powers.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) just released numbers that should make any deficit-fearing Republican stop dead on his or her way to vote to repeal health care reform.

Nora Frederickson, AFL-CIO Media fellow, sends us this profile of the Oregon Young Emerging Labor Leaders program.

One week, Oregon’s young workers might be speaking out on the radio. Or they might be dishing up food at a Portland homeless shelter. They might be learning about labor history through the University of Oregon’s Labor Education and Research Center. Or they might be biking 18 miles in Portland’s only wintertime bicycle ride.

Last fall, the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) conducted a 12-city “Keep it Made in America” town hall tour that brought candidates and voters together to talk about the tough issues revolving around reviving American manufacturing, lowering unemployment and getting the U.S. economy back on track.

Robin Hood, the guy who robbed the rich and gave to the poor, wore a short frock and tights. From the get-go, the guy serving the disadvantaged while sporting gay attire would fail the entrance exam required to become a card-carrying Republican.

Here’s something that certainly isn’t going to be highlighted when Republicans begin their let-no-facts-get-in-the-way show trial of health care reform. Small business owners say the Affordable Care Act will spur them to provide health insurance for their workers.