Organizations representing flight attendants, air marshals and other concerned groups protested a new policy, announced by the Transportation Security Administration, that would allow small knives and other potentially dangerous items to be carried on to commercial flights. Labor and community groups say that allowing these items on planes breaks down one of the integral layers keeping the U.S. aviation system secure.

Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) President Veda Shook said:

Flight Attendants will not stand silently by as knives are re-introduced to the aircraft cabin. Flight Attendants serve as the last line of defense in aviation security, and we are responsible for ensuring the safety, health and security of everyone on board.

After a monthlong journey through 26 American cities, the Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity finally arrived in Washington, D.C., Monday afternoon. Caravaneros, as members of the Caravan are known, descended their bus, parked in front of AFL-CIO headquarters, holding up signs with pictures of their disappeared loved ones, chanting:

“¡Vivos se los llevaron!, ¡vivos los queremos!” (They took them alive! We want them alive!)

May Day—International Workers' Day—is a day when there should be no borders or barriers between workers around the world, said Shawna Bader-Blau, executive director of the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center, at a special May Day forum at the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C., today. The forum focused on the challenges and conditions of Latina and immigrant workers in the United States and women workers around the globe.

Today, working people around the world are celebrating May Day, International Workers’ Day. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says the message around the globe is:

Workers’ rights should be universal and every person—no matter what nationality, ethnicity or gender—must have equal rights and the opportunity to achieve a better life.

Latina workers face marked disadvantages in the workplace and the job market, according to a report released yesterday during the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) Trabajadoras Awards Luncheon honoring Latina leaders who have paved the way for working women to have a better quality of life. The report, “Trabajadoras: Challenges and Conditions of Latina Workers in the United States,” examines economic and social issues affecting Latina workers, conditions of Latina immigrants, the role unions play in providing economic security and issues facing Latino children and youths.

Marvin Bing, a member of the AFL-CIO Special Committee on Labor-Community Partnerships, sends us this report on a meeting of AFL-CIO constituency groups in Phoenix.

AFL-CIO constituency groups kicked off the “We Are One Moving America Forward” symposium late last week with a series of great speeches by William Lucy, Ben Jealous, George Gresham, Danny Ortega and Judith Browne-Dianis. A resounding theme: “We can’t let the 1 percent trick us into believing we are different—We are the 99 percent, we are one and if we don’t work together on issues that bring us together, we will fall together.” We are the people who fight for working families, we are the people who fight to protect our students, children, seniors and families. We are the labor movement and together with the community we are unbeatable.

Brenda Loya in AFL-CIO Media Affairs sends us this from North Carolina, where she is on a fact-finding trip to witness the brutal conditions endured by tobacco workers.

We joined a diverse delegation of 25 activists, students, labor and community leaders and traveled to farm labor camps in Dudley, N.C.., to witness firsthand the appalling and abusive conditions of tobacco farm workers.

Andrea Delgado, LCLAA policy analyst and communications manager, sends us this. 

Politicians must stop blaming immigrants and focus on the root causes of immigration—addiction to cheap labor and free trade policies that displace workers—according to a new study by the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), an AFL-CIO constituency group.

Sept. 15-Oct. 15, Latino Heritage Month, offers a time to recognize the contributions of the nearly 47 million Latinos living in the United States and to highlight the issues facing our Latino brothers and sisters.

The nearly 100,000 workers who travel to North Carolina each summer to harvest the state’s tobacco crop are often repaid for their hard work with sub-minimum wages, dangerous conditions in the fields and inhumane living conditions, according to findings released today from a human rights assessment conducted by Oxfam America and the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC).