"The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress.”

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said that in 1965, and African Americans still hear his quote ring.

A new report, Blacks in Unions: 2012, by the University of California, Berkeley, Center for Labor Research and Education, finds that black workers are 19% more likely to be in unions than non-black workers. In the nation’s 10 largest metropolitan areas, African Americans are 42% more likely than non-blacks to be in unions.

More than 800 union members, their families, immigration advocates and community leaders rallied in front of the Arizona state Capitol yesterday to reaffirm their support for commonsense immigration reform that protects immigrants and America's workers. In a press conference before the rally, Arizona AFL-CIO Executive Director Rebekah Friend announced that the organization had adopted a resolution that calls on Congress to pass immigration reform, including a practical and inclusive road map to citizenship that reflects core American values such as fairness, equality and family unity.

At its February meeting, the AFL-CIO Executive Council, representing 57 affiliate unions, adopted several statements that covered energy and jobs, workers' rights and the National Labor Relations Board and immigration, among other things. 

The historic bond between the labor and civil rights movements will be celebrated this weekend as the AFL-CIO honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s vision that collective action—whether at the voting booth or at the workplace—mobilizes participants to continue their work to make King’s dream a reality.

Over these final few days before Election Day, AFL-CIO officers have been on the ground in key states talking with union members about the vital importance of getting out the vote, they’ve also joined in neighborhood walks and made phone calls alongside volunteers in union phone banks.

This week, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Shuler joined Daily Kos GOTV (Get Out the Vote) Blogathon. 

Union members and working family activists all over the country are joining phone banks and other get-out-the-vote actions to make sure everyone gets to the polls Nov. 6. AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker traveled this week to Florida, where she joined the Florida AFL-CIO in Miami and made calls to voters. 

I’ll never forget my up-close encounter with vote suppression—and it’s the reason I’m so pleased today that a judge in Pennsylvania ordered elections officials there not to enforce a new voter ID law. That means Pennsylvanians who can’t show a photo ID when they go to the polls can still vote a regular—not a provisional—ballot.

My encounter with vote suppression was years ago, when I was a little girl and wanted a new pair of shoes. You can’t get new shoes now, my mother told me, because she had to save the money to pay her poll tax. That’s how important the right to vote was to my mother—she knew it was a sacred right that people had fought and died for and she was not about to treat it as anything less.

The person who’s flipping burgers and making sure there are enough hot dogs to go around at your Labor Day barbecue deserves a little extra thanks, don’t you think? 

Unions and working families will honor the holiday that celebrates the hard work that has made America strong by doing something special this year: recognizing people for their work.

The AFL-CIO is launching a new online application just in time to reclaim Labor Day as a day to recognize people for their hard work. On the new app, at www.aflcio.org/thankyou, participants can send thank-you cards and videos through Facebook and e-mail to friends and others whose work they depend on. 

With workers’ rights under attack, new labor partnerships like the merger of SAG-AFTRA “represents a bright spot in the union movement," said SAG-AFTRA Co-President Roberta Reardon.

SAG-AFTRA today received a national charter from the AFL-CIO. SAG-AFTRA joins 55 other unions, comprising more than 12 million working men and women, under the AFL-CIO banner. SAG and AFTRA voted to merge earlier this year.