The President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness issued a 52-page report today on what it calls “Five Commonsense Initiatives to Boost Jobs and Competitiveness.”

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

Yesterday, Communications Workers (CWA) President Larry Cohen and Ohio AFL-CIO President Tim Burga joined hundreds of union members from AFSCME, APWU, BCTGM, Bricklayers, CWA, FOP, IAFF, IBEW, OCSEA, OPBA, Plumbers & Pipefitters, SOAR, TWU, UFCW, USW, and Working America and community activists at a rally in Columbus to ask them to stand up to Gov. John Kasich’s anti-middle class agenda by getting their co-workers, families, and neighbors out to vote NO on Issue 2/Senate Bill 5.

Like millions of jobless and underemployed Americans, Tom Rutherford wants to work.  The jobless, 22-year veteran licensed electrician and Electrical Workers (IBEW) member has a college degree, has continually improved his skills with special training and is currently taking another upgrading course.

AFL-CIO Community Services Director Will Fischer sends us this report.

More than 90 children received school supply bags through donations of union members in 10 locals from Saginaw County, Mich. AFL-CIO/Michigan Community Services liaison Steven Lamb reports that earlier this month, the unions gave the school supply bags to the YMCA, First Ward Community Center, Salvation Army and the Neighborhood House to distribute to area school children.

Tomorrow’s episode of “Brotherhood Outdoors,” the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance’s (USA’s) hunting and fishing television series, features Joe Proscia and other members of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 3 on their annual striped bass tournament. Proscia helped found Local 3’s Sportsmen’s Club more than 25 years ago. The show airs Thursday, Sept. 22 at 8 p.m. EDT on the Sportsman Channel.

Texas Fire Fighters (IAFF) members have been on the lines around the clock as historic and deadly fires rage in central Texas leaving at least four people dead, destroying nearly 1,400 homes and burning hundreds of thousands of acres.

The nation’s ailing economy needs a prescription powerful enough to heal the jobs crisis and America’s working families need an independent political voice that’s not beholden to parties or politicians, says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

From the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), whose employess are represented by AFGE, to local workers answering emergency calls, government workers have been playing a major role in the cleanup effort of Hurricane Irene. Two of those workers, one in Rutland, Vt., and one in Princeton, N.J., lost their lives while trying to help keep their communiteis safe during the storm.

Unlike many other fishermen’s tales, Greg Myerson’s fish story is true and he has the fish and the photos to prove it.

The 45,000 striking Verizon workers, represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the Electrical Workers (IBEW), will return to work Tuesday under the existing contract as bargaining resumes.