More than 11,000 registered nurses at five University of California (UC) hospitals are voting this week on a tentative 26-month contract that, if approved, would provide for significant improvements for patients and nurses. The nurses, members of  the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU), began voting yesterday on the pact at  UC hospitals at Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Davis (Sacramento) and Irvine, as well as student health centers at other UC campuses. The voting continues through Thursday.

The Fire Fighters (IAFF) reached a tentative agreement with the city of Houston, 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.

Last year, when Congress passed the Affordable Care Act, it was a “historic milestone on our path toward a more just society,” says AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker, “But we also know that much work is left to be done.”

After nearly a year without a contract and a temporary lockout two months ago, the 1,650 registered nurses at Washington Hospital Center ratified a contract in voting over the weekend.

Registered nurses at Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C., who have been fighting for safe patient care and strong nursing standards for nearly a year, reached a tentative agreement last night on a new contract with the hospital. The nearly 1,700 nurses are members of National Nurses United (NNU).

In a letter to the New York Times today,  Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United (NNU), says the Republican plan put forward by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is “little more than a thinly veiled scheme to destroy one of the most fundamental reforms in American history through privatization and further cost-shifting to many of the most vulnerable in our society.”

In Planation, Fla., registered nurses at Florida Medical Center voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to join the National Nurses Organizing Committee-Florida, an affiliate of the National Nurses United (NNU).

While Republican lawmakers and right-wing talking heads try to demonize the union movement, physicians, nurses, flight instructors, technicians, bakers and more are the latest workers to choose a voice on the job with AFL-CIO unions.

Corporate taxes–or more succinctly corporate tax avoidance–has grabbed some big headlines recently starting with The New York Times report that GE, with worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, didn’t pay a dime of U.S. tax in 2010, but got $3.2 billion tax benefit. All legit and all because of corporate tax loopholes companies like GE have lobbied hard to put in place.

Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United (NNU), writes at the  Huffington Post about how the struggles in the Midwest and around the country have exposed the fact that there are two Americas: one where the rich get bailouts and bonuses and the rest of us get our benefits slashed and gutted.