An Atlanta TV station’s investigative report uncovered a Paulding County construction company’s efforts to circumvent federal Davis-Bacon prevailing wage laws and then, when caught by the U.S. Department of Labor again, attempt to avoid paying workers a fair wage for their work by changing their job descriptions to lower-paying classifications.

Laura Bliss-Morris of the Union Sportsmen's Alliance sends us this report.

As part of a Union Sportsmen’s Alliance (USA) Boots on the Ground project, volunteers from Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) District Council 30 helped put the finishing touches on a new facility that will host youth educational programs at the Torstenson Family Youth Conservation Education Center.

Illinois union members raised more than $50,000 to support the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance’s (USA's) conservation mission with their First Annual Illinois Sporting Clays Shoot last weekend at the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation in Dundee, Ill. The shooting competition was sponsored by the Illinois AFL-CIO, Chicago Federation of Labor (CFL) and the Chicago and Cook County Building and Construction Trades Council (CBTC).

Earlier this year, in our AFL-CIO website’s Innovators section, we profiled the work Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 49 in Minneapolis is doing to reduce health care costs and improve health care delivery for the union’s 12,000 members and 21,000 dependents. This week, MSNBC’s "The Dylan Ratigan Show" put the union’s work in the national spotlight.

James Callahan, general president of the Operating Engineers (IUOE), and DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the NFL Players Association (NFLPA), were elected to the AFL-CIO Executive Council this morning at the council’s annual winter meeting in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

Whether you’re a regular reader of AFL-CIO Now or a first time visitor, we certainly hope you’ll find our blogs and those from a growing number of outside contributors to be informative, helpful and sometimes even entertaining. But we also want to encourage you to click around the newly revamped AFL-CIO website, especially two new sections that highlight the innovations union members and unions are bringing to their jobs and communities and their work in their communities, from helping those in need to working in partnerships for economic justice.

Operating Engineers (IUOE) General Counsel Richard Griffin is among the three new members of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) President Obama will appoint through recess appointments, the White House announced.

AFL-CIO Community Services Director Will Fischer sends us this report:

Members of the Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 412 Plumbers and P ipefitters (UA) Local 412 held their 20th annual Heat’s On program in September. As a service provided free of charge to low-income seniors, Heat’s On volunteers service furnaces, winterize swamp coolers, install smoke alarms and change out batteries. This is a joint project among UA Local 412, Mechanical Contractors Association-New Mexico, United Way of Central New Mexico and the City of Albuquerque’s Office of Senior Affairs.

Brian Pugh, deputy political director for the Hudson Valley Area Labor Federation, sends us this report.

The Hudson Valley Area Labor Federation celebrated the end of summer with a Brunch to Build Homes on behalf of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Newburgh. Dozens of union members took part in the Sept. 10 fundraiser on the Newburgh Waterfront and raised $2,000. Labor sponsors included the HVALF, the Wappingers Congress of Teachers, AFGE Local 3740, Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) Local 302, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1500 and Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 30.

AFSCME members in Pennsylvania ratify a new contract covering 45,000 workers, and more news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,400 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.