Citing “repeated and well-documented violations of workers' rights” that the Honduran government has “utterly failed to address,” the AFL-CIO and the major Honduran trade unions are asking the U.S. government to act under the terms of the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA).

TPM Livewire reports that its sources close to the case say the U.S. Department of Commerce has determined the Chinese government illegally subsidized solar exports to the United States. In response, Commerce will impose import duties on Chinese companies sending solar materials to this country.

Over the past decade, as 5.7 million manufacturing jobs were vanishing, many prominent economists and policymakers said the job loss was inevitable. They reason, they said, wasn’t a lack of national manufacturing policy, growing incentives for U.S. firms to move jobs offshore or flawed trade policies. They pointed to increased productivity as the main culprit. A new report debunks that claim.

Yesterday, President Obama announced the United States, in cooperation with the European Union and Japan, will bring a trade case against China’s export restraints on so-called “rare-earth minerals,” which are a vital component in highly advanced products the United States manufactures—or wants to manufacture. The move is a step in the right direction to create more well-paying jobs for America’s workers.

A new agency, announced yesterday by President Obama, to crack down on unfair trade practices by countries such as China, is “a step in the right direction,” says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

A new paper by the Brookings Institute outlines why a healthy manufacturing sector is a vital component of the nation’s economy; what type of manufacturing industries matter the most and the key areas that needed to be strengthened to build high-wage and exportable products.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker knew better than to run his gubernatorial campaign on a platform based on decimiating jobs in Wisconsin. But just one year into his term, he’s already become Job Killer in Chief, according to a new report by the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO.

More than 1.6 million American jobs in the nation’s auto supply chain are at risk unless China’s illegal trade practices are curtailed, according to three new reports released today. In a conference call with reporters this afternoon, United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard said:

This is a cross-post from Huffington Post by Stan Sorscher, labor representative for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace/IFPTE Local 2001 (SPEEA/IFPTE).

I work for a labor union in the aerospace industry. We are 100 percent in favor of trade. We make products the rest of the world wants to buy.

Leaders of the Mexican electrical workers union, along with the AFL-CIO and more than 100 global unions and human rights groups, are asking the U.S. government to negotiate with Mexico to stop the attacks on the union and workers or face sanctions. The Mexican government forcibly disbanded the union in 2009. The union movement has come under constant attack since Mexican President Felipe Calderón took office in 2006. Click here, here and here for more.