When the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star recently published a cartoon featuring so-called “union thugs” in trench coats talking in “does and dem” patois expressing dismay about the "right to work" for less vote in Michigan, with American manufacturing encased in cement ready for a deep six off a pier in the background, and inferring workers were the reason for the demise of Hostess, Seafarers (SIU) Communications Director Jordan Biscardo fired off  a letter to the editor in protest.

Not only was the letter published, but the paper apologized for the cartoon. Here’s Biscardo’s letter:

Check out the AFL-CIO's new In Our Communities website feature, "Recovering After Superstorm Sandy."

The recovery from Superstorm Sandy could be one of the most expensive in American history, with estimates climbingtoward the $50 billion mark in property damage alone. As Americans all across the country pitch in, most of the work repairing and rebuilding the storm-ravaged areas will be done by talented and hardworking union members. Many of the organizations dealing with Sandy’s devastation emphasize the importance of union workers’ expertise and skill, as well as of sufficient government financial support for rebuilding physical structures and roads and, in many cases, people's lives. Here is what our members have been doing to help with the recovery:

High seas piracy, especially in the Arabian Gulf and most of the Indian Ocean, “is becoming more savage and widespread,” says Seafarers (SIU) Secretary-Treasurer David Heindel.

Max Hall has seen the fight for health care reform from both sides—as an advocate and a patient. In a Point of View (POV) guest column at the AFL-CIO website, Hall (no relation to me) writes how he first saw passing health care reform as part of the principles of fairness he believes in. But later, the issue turned personal for the 30-year veteran trade unionist when, in September, he confronted serious medical issues.