I spent so much time on picket lines as a kid that when I thought my dad’s rules were too strict, I would run to build a sign on a stick and try to talk the neighbor kids into marching around the house with me. I learned early on the power of a picket to protest unfair treatment.

That right is more important today than ever. As our economy has shifted toward a more contingent workforce, companies are increasingly hiring workers as part-time or temporary, or labeling them as independent contractors. This leaves workers more vulnerable to abuse while also shielding companies from accountability. When warehouse workers unpacking Walmart goods in a Walmart-owned warehouse were cheated out of their wages, the retail giant responded that those workers were hired through a temporary agency and are not the company’s responsibility.

"Why Picket Lines Matter," by Caitlin Vega, originally appeared on the California Labor Federation's blog Labor's Edge. 

California’s second-largest city has a progressive mayor, former Democratic U.S. House member Bob Filner, who beat his Republican rival by three points in November.

The 70-year-old Filner spent 20 years in Congress. A reliable and articulate liberal—with high marks on his AFL-CIO, ADA and Sierra Club scorecards—he’s a founding member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and was a “Freedom Rider” during the early 1960s civil rights movement, spending two months in jail for “disturbing the peace and inciting a riot.”

The city of Portland, Ore., is planning to discuss a proposal by the Everybody Benefits community coalition that would require businesses to provide paid sick leave to their employees. The coalition is made up of labor, community and business groups and is seeking to follow in the footsteps of San Francisco and other cities that have successfully passed similar ordinances.

Current and former employees of Flat Rate Movers and Mystique clothing stores received good news yesterday. New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced these 400 workers will receive restitution funds for unpaid overtime and minimum wage violations. The 306 current and former employees of Flat Rate Movers, a multistate moving and storage company with headquarters in New York City, are being paid $1.13 million. Approximately 100 employees of Mystique in New York City have also begun receiving restitution as part of a $950,000 settlement.

Good news for 1 million low-wage workers: In 2013, 10 states will see a bump in the minimum wage. 

Dave Jamieson at the Huffington Post writes in "Minimum Wage Increase Hits 10 States, Boosting Pay For An Estimated One Million Workers":

As the new year starts, Arizona's lowest-paid workers will see a gift—the state's minimum wage will go up 15 cents, to a new total of $7.80 an hour. More than 72,000 workers will get a boost in their pay equaling an average of $320 annually. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the increased consumer spending generated by the increase will add $13 million to the local gross domestic product (GDP). Nine other states also will be raising their wages on Jan. 1, 2013, helping nearly 1 million workers across the nation.

Last week, after Michigan became the latest state to pass "right to work" for less legislation, many began to dig into the history of such laws and discovered that one of the earliest pushes for "right to work" came from an extreme right-wing activist Vance Muse, who was staunchly anti-communist, anti-integration and anti-union. Muse was the leader of the Christian American Association, an organization that fought to pass "right to work" in more than a dozen states in the 1940s.

UPDATE: Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) did veto the bill to allow concealed weapons in schools and other public venues. State Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer (D) said, “I am thankful that common sense has prevailed and that Gov. Snyder has vetoed this terribly misguided legislation.”

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder today will veto a just-passed bill that allows licensed concealed weapons permit holders to carry their weapons into current “gun-free zones” such as schools, churches, arenas, hospitals and other specified locations.

In a letter to Snyder following the Connecticut school shooting where 20 children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School, AFT President Randi Weingarten and Michigan AFT President David Hecker wrote Snyder and urged him to veto the legislation.

Faced with a shrinking margin for the 2013 legislative session, Michigan Republicans not only majority-muscled through a “right to work” for less bill in its lame-duck session that stood little chance of passage next year, but several other last-minute controversial measures as well.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the New York City Teachers Retirement System today pledged $1 billion in new investments for infrastructure projects, including improvements to transportation, power, water, communications and housing in New York City and throughout the state that was hit hard by the massive November storm.

The $1 billion pledge is part of a multiyear Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Commitment to Action made by the AFL-CIO, AFT and partners in 2011.