Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent C. Gray still hasn’t said if he will sign or veto the living wage bill for workers at big-box stores such as Walmart. So, as they say on public television telethons, “keep those phones ringing.”  All you need to do is click here and enter your phone number, ZIP code (you must be a D.C. resident) and email. Within a minute, you’ll get a phone call at the number you entered that will connect you directly to Gray’s office.

There is an alarming increase the number of coal miners—including younger and younger miners—diagnosed with deadly black lung disease. But a proposed federal rule limiting miners’ exposure to the coal dust that causes black lung is stuck in regulatory limbo and Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) has urged President Obama to end the delays and move the rule “as expeditiously as possible.”

Whenever communities, lawmakers or activists question or criticize Walmart for the way it treats workers—the low-pay, the stores’ impact on the communities—the retail giant pulls out a well-worn script with a simple message, “Walmart creates jobs and if there’s one thing this economy needs, it’s more jobs.”   

Setting aside the quality of the jobs for another day, is Walmart telling the truth?

We still haven’t heard from Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent C. Gray on if he plans to sign a living wage bill for workers in big-box stores like Walmart that operate in the District of Columbia. So let’s give him a call and urge him to sign the Large Retailer Accountability Act (LRAA).

California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) ordered a board of inquiry Sunday night to investigate the contract negotiations between the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) authority and the unions representing the system’s 2,400 workers. The order averted a strike—for at least seven days—that was likely to begin this morning if negotiators were unable to reach a new contract.

The unions, Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1555 and SEIU Local 1021, told reporters that they hoped the boards’ investigation would reveal BART management’s failure to bargain in good faith and its lack of commitment to reaching a fair settlement.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to come up with a formula to strengthen Social Security, says rocket scientist Rush Holt. Holt, who is also a U.S. House member from New Jersey and a candidate for the U.S. Senate, says we don’t need to raise the retirement age or cut benefits, just lift the cap on the Social Security tax so millionaires and billionaires pay the same rate as working families. Take a look as he explains it in this video. 

Thousands and thousands of fast-food and other low-wage workers this week have walked off the job in a series of one-day strikes in cities across the country. They are demanding a living wage, no retaliation for striking and the right to join unions. Those strikes are continuing today and likely into next week too.

The nation’s economy added 162,000 new jobs in July and the jobless rate dropped to 7.4% from June’s 7.6%, according to figures released this morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

William Spriggs, AFL-CIO chief economist, said today’s job numbers “continue to show a very mild recovery, but they fell below expectations and are disappointing.”

AFL-CIO Health and Safety Director Peg Seminario told a Senate committee on Thursday that the current system for developing and issuing worker and workplace safety rules is:

A broken and dysfunctional system, which is failing to protect workers and costing workers’ lives.

President Obama today ordered federal agencies to develop new rules to address the handling and storage of industrial chemicals such as the ammonia nitrate fertilizer that caught fire and exploded in West, Texas, killing 15 and leveling large portions of the town in April. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says the executive order was:

Urgently needed to improve chemical safety and security throughout the country...and provides the direction and road map to address chemical hazards.