It’s been nearly a year since the 1,300 American Crystal Sugar Co. workers with the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) have gone to work. The workers are locked out of five American Crystal Sugar processing facilities and other facilities.

This is a cross-post from the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center.

Sisanda Mbokotho, a representative of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the nation’s largest union, led a workshop on global worker solidarity at the AFL-CIO Next Up Young Workers Summit.

Emelle Israel, AFL-CIO Media Outreach fellow, is in Minneapolis for the Next Up Young Workers Summit and sends us this report.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka came to Minneapolis today to help send off the 800 attendees concluding the Next Up Young Workers Summit. He capped off a successful weekend with an inspiring speech that called for young people to use their “critical imagination,” their ability to look at problems and come up with new and different solutions.

The 800 young workers, activists and students at the AFL-CIO Next Up Young Worker Summit in Minneapolis announced their strong support of the Occupy Wall Street protesters:

 ”The world in which we live isn’t working for the vast majority of people. The top 1 percent controls the economy, makes profits at the expense of working people, and dominates the political debate. Wall Street symbolizes this simple truth: a small group of people have the lives and livelihoods of working Americans in their hands.

Ja-Rei Wang, AFL-CIO Media Outreach fellow, is in Minneapolis for the Next Up Young Workers Summit and sends us this report.

The focus stayed on jobs yesterday in Minneapolis on the third day of AFL-CIO’s Next Up Young Worker Summit. After attending workshops organized and led by summit participants, the 800 young workers, organizers and students came together for a town hall to discuss ways to keep the spotlight on the issue on every participant’s mind.

Emmelle Israel, AFL-CIO Media Outreach fellow, is in Minneapolis for the Next Up Young Workers Summit and sends us this report.

Along with 800 young workers, students, and activists, I marched down the streets of downtown Minneapolis, calling for “Good Jobs Now!” during the 2011 AFL-CIO Next Up Young Workers Summit.

Emmelle Israel, an AFL-CIO Media Outreach fellow, is taking part in the Next Up Summit and sends us this report.

A poll among young people attending the 2011 AFL-CIO Next Up Young Workers Summit shows their highest priorites are economic security, job security and government action to improve the nation’s economy.

Kurston Cook, with the AFL-CIO, is in Minneapolis and sends us this.

Some 800 young workers from across the country are convening in Minneapolis today through Sunday for the AFL-CIO Next Up Young Workers Summit to discuss topics ranging from the future of the union movement to the future of the economy. 

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler and U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis will kick off the second annual Next Up Young Workers Summit in Minneapolis tomorrow. Hundreds of young working people, including organizers and students from across the country, will meet in Minneapolis Sept. 29-Oct. 2 for the Summit, part of the AFL-CIO’s efforts, led by Shuler, to reach out to working people under age 35. 

When the 45 AFL-CIO Union Summer 2011 interns are asked what they did for their summer vacation, they won’t have any stories about lounging on the beach or backpacking through Europe. But the will tell about making a real difference in people’s lives and about how much that involvement has contributed to their sense of social justice.