Devin Griggs wishes Murray State University had a labor studies program. “A lot of college kids don’t know much about unions,” said Griggs, a 20-year-old junior at Kentucky’s westernmost public university.

Elizabeth Boomer of the AFL-CIO International Affairs Department sends us this.

PKC, a Finnish auto parts corporation with production facilities located in more than 10 countries in Asia, South America, Europe and North America, recently acquired a subsidiary named Arneses y Accesorios de Mexico. The workers in the plants want the National Miners’ and Metalworkers Union (Los Mineros) to represent them, but PKC North America President and CEO Frank Sovis informed the workers that “to protect itself and jobs, the company has decided to sign a collective agreement with the Mexican Confederation of Workers” (CTM).

While Mitt Romney is campaigning in Michigan this week, workers there are letting him know just how offensive they find his claim that “we should have let Detroit go bankrupt,” when the economy and the auto industry were about to collapse.

Christian Sweeney, AFL-CIO deputy organizing director, sends us this.

A busload of teaching and research assistants from New York University (NYU) traveled to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) headquarters in Washington, D.C., in recent days to call on the board to affirm their right to form unions. The NYU TAs and RAs, members of the UAW, filed a petition seeking a union recognition election in the spring of 2010 but are still waiting for a board decision.

As they proceed with a two-pronged approach to building their union, graduate assistants at the University of Minnesota say they are both hopeful and realistic.

On a brisk and sunny day in New York City, Christy Thornton stood at the corner of Broadway and 31st streets.

Deborah Dion with the Ohio AFL-CIO field program sends us this.

Speaking at a Cleveland rally on the eve of Nov. 8, Election Day, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka brought down the house yesterday when he spoke passionately about why we must join together and beat back Issue 2/ S.B. 5. More than 500 union volunteers from 30 different local unions as well as community activists and Columbia University students from New York City rose to their feet repeatedly cheering before hitting the doors to canvass city neighborhoods  to spread the message about voting “No” vote on Issue 2/S.B. 5.

UAW members at Chrysler have voted to approve a new four-year agreement with the automaker, the last of the Big Three contracts to be ratified. Earlier this month Ford workers approved a contract and in September UAW members ratified a four-year contract with General Motors.

In North Carolina, the tobacco industry is running roughshod over workers’ rights—and their most fundamental human rights, according to a recent report, “State of Fear: Human Rights Abuses in North Carolina’s Tobacco Industry,” issued jointly by the Farm Labor Organizing Committee and Oxfam, the global relief organization. FLOC represents more than 6,000 farm workers in the state.

Some 750 United Steelworkers (USW) members ratified a new contract, ending an 11-month lockout, and more news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,400 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.