William “Bill” McCarthy, president of the AFL-CIO Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation (MRLF), is recipient of the 2012 United Way’s prestigious Joseph A. Beirne Community Services Award. As president of the MRLF and member of UNITEHERE! Local 17, McCarthy has dedicated his life to the pursuit of social and economic justice for workers and their families.

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.

Union bashing may the popular sport for Republican presidential candidates (click here for more). But a new report looks at some of the real stories about how unions and union members are having positive impacts on jobs, health care, education and their communities.   

Six months ago, Tropical Storm Irene battered New York’s Hudson Valley and historic flooding devastated communities like Schoharie, leaving hundreds of homes destroyed or severely damaged. But Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) members have been helping Schoharie’s residents reclaim their homes.

Holiday carolers serenaded Verizon board member Rodney Slater yesterday with new words to an old favorite:

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas, Verizon gave to me: Profits over people, less respect for workers, more corporate greed, less health insurance, dividends for stockholders, cutting our pensions, billions in profits, OUT-SOURCING JOBS, unfairly fired workers, dishonest bargaining, a cut in starting pay and a few million for the CEO!

Activists from the Communications Workers of America (CWA), other unions, Jobs with Justice and the Occupy movement sang carols about corporate greed outside Slater’s downtown Washington, D.C., office. Slater, the U.S. secretary of transportation under President Bill Clinton, made $219,000 last year as a Verizon board director and helped stuff the stockings of the company’s top five executives with a cool $258 million over the past four years, earning Slater and his Verizon

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

Members from the Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) District Council 2, friends and family came together in South St. Louis in recent days to give the “Women in Transition” organization a much needed makeover.

Kudos to Los Angeles union members who helped out those in need over the recent holiday. The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and Labor Community Services, AFL-CIO sponsored the Homeless Heroes Team, with more than 200 union members, their families and veterans taking part in a 5K run/walk and raising $10,000 for homeless vets.

The Helmets to Hardhats program, the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD) and the AFL-CIO today launched the fourth year of their partnership with the Toys for Tots program sponsored by the United States Marine Corps Reserves.

AFL-CIO Community Services liaison Michael Smith helped out with this event and sends us this report.

More than 400 families received free food in Bedford, Mich., over the weekend as part of an event coordinated by the Monroe-Lenawee AFL-CIO, the Monroe County United Way and the Monroe County Opportunity Program.

James Earl Jones is the recipient of the 2011 Actors’ Equity (AEA) Paul Robeson Award. The annual award honors performers who best exemplify the principles the legendary actor, singer, author and activist lived by.