Nearly 800 young working people, activists and students from across the country kicked off the AFL-CIO Next Up Young Workers Summit in Minneapolis today by doing what union members do best—helping others in need. 

Kurston Cook, with the AFL-CIO, is in Minneapolis and sends us this.

Some 800 young workers from across the country are convening in Minneapolis today through Sunday for the AFL-CIO Next Up Young Workers Summit to discuss topics ranging from the future of the union movement to the future of the economy. 

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler and U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis will kick off the second annual Next Up Young Workers Summit in Minneapolis tomorrow. Hundreds of young working people, including organizers and students from across the country, will meet in Minneapolis Sept. 29-Oct. 2 for the Summit, part of the AFL-CIO’s efforts, led by Shuler, to reach out to working people under age 35. 

U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis will headline a panel, along with AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler at the second annual AFL-CIO Next Up Young Workers Summit beginning later this week. Since taking office in 2009, Solis, the daughter of union members, has changed the direction of the Labor Department from one that favored employers to one that protects working people.

All the Republican candidates for president want to repeal the nation’s new health care law.  Maybe because it’s helping solve the nation’s health care crisis?

During the second panel in today’s national symposium on “Jobs, Justice and the American Dream,” panelists made it clear that now is the time for a massive effort by progressives to come together at all levels to build a movement that reclaims the moral vision that King had and to force needed social change in our nation.  They agreed that Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of social justice is not limited to African Americans and poor people. It encompasses all people who are oppressed or denied their human rights, including working people who are either immigrants, middle class, lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender (LBGT) or young.

Republican leaders like Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) say the future will be full of “broken promises.” Rather than working to strengthen Medicare and other essential working family programs, they plan to be the ones who will break those promises and dismantle Medicare and make huge cuts in other vital services.

The unemployment rate for young workers between ages 16 to 24 has skyrocketed as millions of young people have lost jobs and school enrollment has steadily increased over the past decade.

Gladys Cisneros from the Solidarity Center reports on the  Working Youth Committee of the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA-ITUC) support for U.S. workers.

Last week,  the Working Youth Committee of the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA-ITUC) released a statement of support and solidarity for workers in the state of Wisconsin.

The problems facing working women extend across national boundaries, and today, International Women’s Day, women organizers on opposite sides of the world shared ideas and inspiration. In a live teleconference, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler and four young women organizers in the United States talked with a roomful of women organizers in Johannesburg, South Africa. Shuler began by saying:

With the global jobs crisis increasing unemployment…young workers, young women workers entering the workforce struggle to find decent work. Given the challenges facing young women workers around the world, the AFL-CIO, ITUC [International Trade Union Confederation] and [the South African trade union federations] hope to use International Women’s Day as a way to shine a spotlight on the important role unions can play in the lives of young women workers.