Striking workers at a Caterpillar hydraulic parts factory in Joliet, Ill., voted today to ratify a proposed six-year contract, ending a nearly 16-week strike.

The 800 workers, members of Machinists (IAM) Local 851, will receive a $3,100 ratification bonus, well above the $1,000 Caterpillar initially offered. Workers hired after 2005 will receive an automatic 3 percent raise annually for the life of the contract.

This from TPM:

A panel of federal judges ruled late Thursday that a Florida law that limits the number of early voting days cannot be implemented in several counties because it
would have an adverse impact on minority turnout.

The early voting restrictions are part of a voter suppression package the Republican-controlled state legislature passed last year. Other provisions included disenfranchising 100,000 previously eligible ex-felons who'd been granted the right to vote under Republican Gov. Charlie Crist in 2008 and shutting down non-partisan voter registration drives. In May, a federal judge blocked enforcement of the provision restricting non-partisan voter registration drives.

Unlike nearly every other presidential candidate, Republican Mitt Romney refuses to make public more than two years of tax returns. Today, the multimillionaire said he has paid a tax rate of at least 13 percent on his income in each of the past 10 years—but he still won't release his returns. Meanwhile, President Obama's returns have long been public and show he pays a 20 percent tax rate.

At a measly 13 percent, Romney, who is worth a quarter of a billion dollars, is paying significantly less in taxes than other high-income earners who pay 35 percent. Through the use of offshore tax shelters and other means, Romney pays a smaller tax rate than average taxpayers like nurses, firefighters and construction workers.

In more than three decades, no other nominees for either party—except Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)— have released fewer than five years’ worth of returns. Romney’s own father released a dozen years’ worth when he ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968.

Next time you write your tax check to the Internal Revenue Service, imagine which multibillion-dollar corporation may get some of your hard-earned pay.

How about drugmaker Abbott Laboratories, which in 2011 claimed a $586 million tax refund for its 64 subsidiaries operating in 16 countries considered tax havens?

Or maybe Chesapeake Energy, a company that last year made $2.8 billion in pre-tax U.S. profits—but whose effective tax rate over the course of its 23-year history has averaged only about 1 percent?

Machinists (IAM) District 8 in Joliet, Ill., and Caterpillar Inc. reached a tentative contract agreement late Tuesday and members are now voting on whether to ratify it. Workers have been on strike against the heavy equipment maker since May 1.

The proposed six-year contract contains many improvements over previous offers, said District 8 Business Representative Steve Jones.

When wages rise, workers and communities benefit. So imagine how improved our national economy would be if the wages of nearly 30 million workers got a boost?

If Congress acted to raise the federal minimum wage to $9.80 by July 1, 2014, some 28 million workers would see a pay increase, according to the Economic Policy Institute’s (EPI) latest report on the minimum wage. Further, those workers would receive nearly $40 billion in additional wages over the phase-in period.

During an across the phase-in period of the minimum-wage increase, the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) would increase by roughly $25 billion, resulting in the creation of approximately 100,000 net new jobs, according to EPI.

Some say young voters are apathetic this election year and not likely to go to the polls.

Popular YouTube personality Soul Khan tackles this challenge head on—with messages that resonate about what’s at stake for young voters if they don’t get out and vote to re-elect President Obama.

With an entertaining rap, Khan gets in the face of young people with messages like:

Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) proposed federal budget, as we pointed out, is bad for the nation and for working people.

But it gets even worse: Ryan’s plan, which the U.S. House has approved already, would gut what little is left of state budgets by slashing funding for a range of programs. States and localities would lose $247 billion from 2013 through 2021, in addition to the cuts they would absorb because of caps on national spending, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). (Click on chart at left to expand.)

Yet another study shows that supposed rampant “voter fraud” is nearly nonexistent. The Washington Post reports on a study today that finds one voter fraud case for every 16 million prospective voters.

An analysis of 2,068 reports of alleged election fraud over the past 12 years by News21 shows that in-person voter impersonation on Election Day, which has prompted 37 state legislatures to enact or consider tougher voter ID laws, was virtually nonexistent.

From the Arab uprisings to the international recognition of the rights of domestic workers, 2011 was a turning point for millions of workers around the globe. The AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center, whose mission is to support workers in building independent trade unions around the world, partnered with workers and their unions as they organized for better working conditions, greater social protections, more fair labor laws and increased democracy and equity in their countries.

In its just-released 2011 Annual Report, the Solidarity Center shows how its staff in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas partnered with workers and their unions organizing for better working conditions and for the fundamental rights denied to them.

Here are a few highlights.