Northrop Grumman is preparing to spin off its shipbuilding business next month, putting 4,000 skilled workers at the Avondale Shipyard in Louisiana out of work. The layoffs would devastate the Gulf region’s economy and the communities dependent on the shipbuilding industry.

The 71 National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) members who staff Memphis International Airport’s tower and Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) have been honored for their outstanding work at the uniquely busy, 24/7 facility that along with normal commercial traffic, serves as the hub for the worldwide cargo operation of FedEx.

This is a cross-post from the Alliance for American Manufacturing.

President Obama travels to Manitowoc, Wis., this afternoon. In Wisconsin, he’ll no doubt encounter a lot of struggling paper mills (along with workers who’ve been laid off from those mills). This is a result of unfair competition from China’s heavily subsidized paper industry.

This is a cross-post from The Huffington Post by Stewart Acuff, Utility Workers (UWUA) chief of staff and assistant to the president.

It is 9 p.m. on a very cold Philadelphia night as I sit down to write this. I’ve just returned from a closed casket viewing of my 19-year-old union brother Mark Keely who was blown up in a gas main explosion three nights ago. Three other union members of his work crew were burned from head to toe.

In response to the fiscal crisis, many cash-starved state and local governments are considering privatizing core public assets, potentially costing thousands of jobs and decreasing the quality of service to the public.

On Super Bowl weekend, not all eyes will be on Cowboys Stadium in Dallas. On Feb. 5, the day before the big game there, the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) and the AFL-CIO will host a special all-star football game at San Antonio’s Alamodome. What’s special about it is that we’re working to fill the stadium with workers who have lost their jobs, members of the military and youth. And you can help by donating a ticket for someone who’s having a tough time.

Around the country, public employees are under attack by Republican governors, state legislatures and right-wing conservative commentators who are blaming them for state and local government budget problems. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) is leading the charge.

Workers at a General Electric’s (GE’s) refrigerator plant in Bloomington, Ind., have been fighting to keep the facility viable in the cutthroat global economy. Now, two years after the company said it was going to shutter the plant, workers are celebrating a new day. Instead of closing the plant, GE has announced it will invest $93 million in upgrades and begin to produce energy-efficient refrigerators at the plant.

The UAW applauded Ford Motor Co.’s announcement yesterday that it will invest $400 million in its Kansas City, Mo., assembly plant over the next two years, which will save at least 3,750 jobs at the plant plus thousands of other supporting jobs.

As more states consider offering paid family leave, state legislators would do well to check out a new guide released last week that offers a primer on the nation’s first paid family leave program, implemented six years ago in California. Published by the Labor Project for Working Families and the Berkeley Center for Health, Economic & Family Security, the guide includes the dos and don’ts other states should consider as they pursue similar proposals.