The Machinists (IAM) and the Transport Workers (TWU) have reached a partnership to jointly represent nearly 30,000 ground workers at the “new” American Airlines following the merger of American Airlines and US Airways.

Marcus Hedger, illegally fired in 2010, will have to wait even longer to get his job back if the Senate fails to confirm President Obama’s bipartisan nominees to serve on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Call your senators toll free at 1-888-264-6154 and tell them to confirm the board nominations now.

In January 2012, the Ironworkers launched a new worksite safety campaign, with the goal of “zero fatalities, and the first figures in show that Countdown to Zero” is making a difference and saving lives (see chart inside post).

Join us Wednesday at 1 p.m. EDT for this week’s live online discussion with with Dr. Steven Pitts, labor policy specialist at the UC Berkeley Labor Center. He is hosting our second online conversation on how we build a better future for working people and a bigger and stronger movement.

On Monday we asked our readers what we can do together to make a better future for working people and to build a bigger and stronger movement. We need to know what you think because our 2013 AFL-CIO Convention will focus on how the labor movement should change and what we can do together to improve the future of all working people.

Your response has been tremendous. Nearly 300 of you have gone to our AFL-CIO Convention discussion page and told us what you think has to be done to give working families a better deal. Further below are excerpts from some of your suggestions and thoughts.

Union members in Swampscott, Mass., this week showed just how grassroots democracy works when a coalition of unions from the North Shore Labor Council mobilized to turn back an attack on public employees’ health care and retirement security.

By a near party-line vote, the House yesterday approved a bill, pushed by Republican leadership, that if it ever became law, would mean many workers would work more hours for less pay. By a 223-204 vote, the House passed the so-called Working Families Flexibility Act (H.R. 1406).

New York City workers will receive, starting next year, five paid sick days a year to care for themselves or an ill family member under a measure the New York City Council passed (45-3) this afternoon. The vote culminates a four-year effort by a powerful coalition of workers, unions and community groups.

After Medicare deductions, Marty Alvarado has about $950 left in her monthly Social Security check. The Alliance for Retired Americans members from Dallas told a Capitol Hill Hands Off Social Security summit of Alliance members, lawmakers, senior activists and Social Security advocates:

As you might imagine that’s very difficult to live on. I cannot afford to lose any of my benefits due to the chained CPI cut in benefits. This is especially important to me as a woman. Women represent 57% of all Social Security beneficiaries. Chained CPI would hit female beneficiaries especially hard because we tend to live longer.

In 2011, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a commonsense and evenhanded rule that said employers must post a notice in the workplace to inform workers of their rights. Simply put, the 11 x 17 poster should inform workers of their right to join a union and their right not to join a union.

Yesterday, a trio of Republican-appointed judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the NLRB rule violated the employers’ right of free speech. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka called the courts’ ruling “absurd.”