This is a cross-post, by Justine Winnie, from The Stand, a project of the Washington State Labor Council (WSLC) and its affiliated unions. Winnie of OPEIU Local 8 is the newly elected recording secretary for WA YELL. 

More than 50 young leaders and allies converged Aug. 5 in Wenatchee for the Washington Young Emerging Labor Leaders’ (WA YELL's) first annual convention. Members from diverse corners of the state kicked off their time at the WSLC’s convention with a bang and brought their trademark spark and dedication to movement-building across industries, unions and generations.

Good jobs should be as American as apple pie, but U.S. corporations have shipped some six million American jobs overseas in the past decade. Yesterday in Pittsburgh, some 200 union members told U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) that it’s time to “Bring Jobs Home.”

Hoping to talk to Sen. Toomey (R-PA) or his staff to urge support for the Bring Jobs Home Act (S. 2884), the activists from 19 unions and labor groups marched to Toomey’s home office. But even the offering of an All-American, union-made apple pie (courtesy of Food and Commercial Workers [UFCW] Local 23) couldn’t get the group in the door.

Representatives from Wal-Mart and other retailers attended a White House event today to recognize grocery chains and other corporations for expanding their businesses into underserved areas.

Here’s a statement from Rebekah Friend, executive director and secretary/treasurer of the Arizona AFL-CIO, about today’s tragedy in Tuscon, Ariz., in which a gunman shot Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in the head as she met outside a grocery store with constituents. The gunman, who is in custody, also allegedly shot and killed Chief Judge John Roll of the U.S. District Court for Arizona and an unidentified nine-year-old girl.