The collapse of the Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River in Washington State on Thursday “is a sober reminder” to state lawmakers of the need for a transportation revenue package, says Washington State Labor Council ( WSLC ) President Jeff Johnson.

Here is a great story about unions giving back and making a big difference in their community from David Groves,   editor for the Washington State Labor Council’s ( WSLC ‘s) news site  The Stand . Groves reports on the Central Washington Building and Construction Trades Council’s (CWBCTC's) volunteer efforts that provided 100% of the labor to build a 14,000-square-foot warehouse for Second Harvest, a network of 250 neighborhood food banks and meal centers throughout eastern Washington and north Idaho.

Several hundred union, immigrant and community activists rallied in Seattle on Monday and called for comprehensive, commonsense immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship for more than 11 million aspiring citizens.

The Seattle action was one of more than a dozen events that are the kickoff of the AFL-CIO’s immigration reform campaign . 

As thousands of engineers and technical workers at Boeing Co. plants in the Pacific Northwest took part in a “Day of Action,” negotiations between Boeing and the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace ( SPEEA )/IFPTE Local 2001 resumed Wednesday in Seattle and continue today. In the fall, the workers overwhelmingly (15,092 to 608) rejected an initial contract offer.

Union members and working people are mobilizing all over the country in labor walks, phone banks and leafletting, getting the word out about what's at stake this election. AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Shuler has been meeting with working people and joining labor walks from coast to coast this past week.

On Wednesday, Shuler helped kick off the first local chapter of  Young Emerging Labor Leaders (WA YELL) in Spokane, Wash.

Shuler thanked the young workers’ group for their activism on the Verizon and T-Mobile campaigns and encouraged the group to stay energized for Nov. 6. Shuler reminded the group that good jobs and college loans are on the line this November.

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.

“Something is changing in America,” AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker told delegates to the Washington State Labor Council’s (WSLC's) convention .

The pieces are coming together and the picture is getting clear. We will change America. But we won’t do it alone. As mighty as our labor movement is—and here in Washington you are a powerful force—we cannot do it alone.

This is a cross-post  from David Groves of The Stand, a project of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO ( WSLC ) and its affiliated unions.

In the past decade, 50,000 manufacturing sites closed and six million American jobs were lost because of offshoring and outsourcing. The Kimberly-Clark mill in Everett — which was shut down for good earlier this year, directly costing 750 people their family-wage jobs and impacting thousands more jobs in the community — is yet another example.

This is a cross-post from David Groves at The Stand , a project of the Washington State Labor Council .

OLYMPIA (April 11) — With strong bipartisan support, the Washington state legislature today passed the Infrastructure Jobs Bonds sought by a labor-business coalition to create some 20,000 jobs throughout the state. Washington State Labor Council (WSLC) President Jeff Johnson called it "a great victory for the working men and women of our state, especially those in the construction industry who have suffered from such high unemployment since the beginning of the recession."

Contracts covering more than 1,400 Seattle-area hotel and restaurant workers have expired and UNITEHERE! Local 8 has mounted a campaign of actions across the region to call on management to negotiate fair contracts that provide livable wages, job security and respect on the job.