Netroots Nation, the annual conference for online activists, is on next week, June 16-19, in Minneapolis. The union movement has a big presence there, as we seek to work more closely with our progressive allies in the netroots community. Here are some highlights:

• AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler is taking part in a June 17 lunch panel to talk about breaking down economic barriers that keep many Americans from moving ahead, especially young people, women and communities of color. She is joined by communications consultant Anat Shenker-Osorio and hip-hop artist Rha Goddess.

Hundreds of union members rallied today in the nation’s capital to support the more than 240 striking Red Cross nurses and donor collection staff in Philadelphia and southern New Jersey. The Red Cross workers, members of Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE), an AFT affiliate, have been on strike since May 24.

There is still time to register for the Great Labor Arts Exchange and Conference on Creative Organizing, June 17–19 at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Md.

Three Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) chapters have been awarded grants by the Berger-Marks Foundation to help them mentor and promote young women activist and trade unionists.

Domestic workers around the world play a crucial role in raising children, caring for the elderly and the infirm, and generally supporting those in need of household help. But these same workers are all too often exploited and have little recourse because they are largely excluded from the legal protections that safeguard almost all other workers.

Tomorrow in Memphis, the 1,300 Memphis sanitation workers whose 1968 strike for the right to join a union and collectively bargain was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s last campaign, will be honored in the second part of their induction into the U.S. Department of Labor Hall of Fame.

Locked-out workers from Roquette America’s Keokuk, Iowa, plant took their fight for justice to French-owned multinational corporation’s just-opened Geneva, Ill., facility yesterday. And the global labor movement is lining up behind the locked-out workers.

The 1,300 registered nurse at the University of Chicago Medical Center who last year voted to join National Nurses United (NNU), this week overwhelmingly ratified their first contract with the University.

Max is in deep trouble. His bosses have seen him meeting with “union types” and they want a word with him. Privately. Behind closed doors. Now!

John See of AFT’s Public Affairs Department reports on two important rulings that protect the rights of immigrant workers.

Teachers across the globe are fighting back against abuse and exploitation. With the assistance of AFT and partner unions in the Philippines, the rights of teachers who came to the United States on temporary visas were affirmed recently  in rulings in  two countries.