Social Security is our most important family protection program that works not just for retirees, but also for people with disabilities and children who've lost a working parent. It's a promise for all generations. People pay for this benefit throughout their working lives. Social Security is immensely popular with voters across the political spectrum, which is why those who would like to dismantle the program consistently distort the facts and falsely claim the program is "bankrupt." It's important for working people to know the truth about the program and push back against Social Security myths and lies and fight for more, not less retirement security.

Here are six Social Security facts you need to know:

A total of 84,350 pension plans have vanished since 1985. This figure shocked Pulitzer Prize-winning authors Donald L. Barlett and James W. Steele, who just released their latest book, "The Betrayal of the American Dream." Their chapter on retirement chronicles the heist of the American dream's secure retirement by the financial elite and is a very important section of the book, says Steele, who spoke with the AFL-CIO about the retirement crisis. Steele says there's another number we should pay attention to: $17,686. That's the median value of 401(k) accounts in 2011. For most working people, the amount in their 401(k) account would pay them less than $80 a month for life.

Many people can no longer attain the American Dream—and high-level decisions over the past few decades have led our nation to this point.

Join us on Thursday, Sept. 13, when Pulitzer Prize-winning author and reporter Hedrick Smith will discuss his new book, Who Stole the
American Dream? Can We Get It Back? In his latest look into the deepest layers of Washington politics, Smith deploys his formidable investigative skills to trace how we got here—and whether we can undo the damage. (RSVP here.)

Barbara J. Easterling is president of the Alliance for Retired Americans. She was previously the secretary-treasurer of the Communications Workers of America.  

As we near Labor Day, I want to encourage you to help younger generations better understand why labor unions are so important. Too many people either know very little about unions or only know what politicians and Fox News tell them.

Jeff Faux, Distinguished Fellow at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), joined us here today at the AFL-CIO to discuss his new book, The Servant Economy: Where America’s Elite is Sending the Middle Class. The event launches the AFL-CIO summer book series, which includes discussions with noted economists who will talk about their new books on jobs, inequality and the U.S. financial crisis. (Get details and RSVP here.)

In his last book, The Global Class War, Faux in 2006 correctly predicted the permanent decline of our debt-burdened middle class at the hands of our off-shoring executives, out of control financiers and their friends in Washington. So we asked Faux a few questions about what his latest analyses and predictions in The Servant Economy.

Social Security is popular.

It is one of the most, if not the most, popular federal government-run programs. It is social insurance, not welfare. It provides Americans with a reliable source of income when: a senior retires from work, a child loses a working parent or if a worker becomes disabled.

Social Security is an American promise.  We pay into the program during our working lives and we’re entitled to collect benefits. We paid for it. It’s our money.

The annual Social Security trustees' report released today shows Social Security is “vibrant and strong” and, says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, it “continues to ensure working people a chance to retire with the dignity earned though a lifetime of hard work.”

This is a crosspost by AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Lee Saunders from Huffington Post.

Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal, the Pravda of the 1 percent, is at it again, continuing its push to gut the retirement security of millions of middle class workers across the country while enriching the Wall Street moneymen who just three years ago took our economy over the cliff.

Terry Miale, a communications systems engineer, lost nearly everything when she lost her job.

The following is by John August, executive director of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions. Read the full version of his column is at L&M Partnership.

The U.S. Census Bureau released new measures of poverty in November. According to the New York Times, “All told 100 million people – one in three Americans – either live in poverty or in the fretful zone just above it.”