Shortcut Navigation:

AFL-CIO Now

Showing blog posts tagged with student loan

Minnesota: Young Workers Showing New Ways to Lead

Minnesota AFL-CIO Young Workers Convention was held last Sunday.

This is a cross-post from Workday Minnesota. 

No one would blame Nicholas Perez and Cheri Stewart if they decided the problems facing their generation are just too big to tackle.

After all, unemployment among 16- to 24-year-olds stands at more than 17% and is even higher for young people of color. Many college graduates are burdened with tens of thousands of dollars of debt. Older workers often stereotype the millennial generation as self-absorbed and “lacking a work ethic.”

Perez, Mitchell and some 20 other young workers who participated in the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s Young Workers Convention on Sunday have experienced it. They’re not throwing up their hands, however—they’re organizing. Many are finding new ways to lead within their unions.

Read more and comment »

Education: Affordable and Accessible Only for the Privileged?

Photo of the National Labor College 2012 graduation by Page One Photography.

2007 Boston Globe report on college admissions data that has been making the rounds on Twitter lately reveals that “about 15 percent of freshmen enrolled at America's highly selective colleges are white teens who failed to meet their institutions' minimum admissions standards,” most of whom “are students who gained admission through their ties to people the institution wanted to keep happy, with alumni, donors, faculty members, administrators and politicians topping the list.”

Read more and comment »

Trumka: Unions and Student Activists Share Similar Vision for America

It may not always be obvious, but the union movement and progressive student activists share the same core values when it comes to fighting for social and economic justice for all people. Today, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka addressed more than 1,200 young activists at the 8th annual Campus Progress National Conference in Washington, D.C.:

Read more and comment »

Scott Brown: Wall St.’s Favorite Senator

Scott Brown: Wall St.’s Favorite Senator

Massachusetts Voters Beware. Millionaire candidate Sen. Scott Brown portrays himself as an “average guy in a pickup” when in reality he’s a big backer of Wall Street, not Main Street.

Scott Brown: Wall Street’s Favorite Senator,” a new website launched by the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, highlights Brown’s two-year anti-worker voting record in the Senate.

Read more and comment »

Reports: How a Stafford Increase Would Impact States

The Center for American Progress, Campus Progress and the USAction Education Fund released new reports today that detail what an increase in the interest rate on Stafford student loans would mean for several states.

If Congress doesn’t act, the interest rate on these loans will double—from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent—on July 1.

Read more and comment »

Student Loan Interest Rates Set to Double Without Congressional Action

Today in his weekly address to the nation, President Obama reiterated his call to Congress to act quickly to prevent interest rates on student loans for some 7.5 million students from doubling on July 1.

Instead, over the past few years, Republicans in Congress have voted against new ways to make college more affordable for middle-class families, and voted for huge new tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires—tax cuts that would have to be paid for by cutting things like education and job-training programs that give students new opportunities to work and succeed.

Read more and comment »

Report: Without More Investment in the Young, Middle Class Could Disappear

In “The State of Young America: The Databook,” the economic experts at Demos demonstrate that by virtually every measure, the fortunes of America’s young people are falling under a deluge of debt, shrinking opportunity, rising costs of living and lack of access to health care.

Read more and comment »

Take Action

Sign the Pledge for a Road Map to Citizenship

Sign the pledge to fight for a common-sense immigration process that creates a road map to citizenship for aspiring Americans.

Click here »

Connect With Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Flickr
  • RSS

Are you a union member?


*Message and data rates may apply.

Facebook Favorites

Blogs

Join Us Online