This week, we posted the sixth in the AFL-CIO series of live online discussions on how we build a movement for the future of working people. Saru Jayaraman, co-founder and co-director of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United, posed this question:

How can we create a culture shift and raise the consciousness of America's public about the need to improve wages and working conditions?

Check out some of the great comments so far. Here are some highlights: 

With the rapid rise of worker centers and alternate ways to gain a voice on the job, a traditional union is no longer the only way to organize and bargain for paid sick leave, a raise and other workplace rights. Just look at the Walmart strikers and restaurant workers speaking out about the need for paid sick leave. Worker centers representing domestic and food service workers and groups like the Dancers’ Alliance and Working America, the AFL-CIO's community affiliate, are expanding the definition of what it means to be a part of the labor movement.

At the Netroots Nation 2013 conference, a group of people representing traditional labor and worker centers will be discussing "Alt-Labor" in a panel on Friday at 4:30 p.m. PDT.

As previously reported, 60 workers at Belshaw Adamatic Bakery Group in Auburn, Wash., went on strike after they made concessions that would save the company $20,000 per month and the company refused to share a portion of the savings with workers through increased salaries. The workers, members of the Machinists (IAM) Local 79, rejected the last offer from the company on May 10, and the company has hired replacement workers to fill 39 of the 60 jobs.

Update: Earlier we reported Patriot Coal left the negotiation table with UMWA. A new report from BNA says Patriot Coal will return to the talks. The company denies it left the negotiations. UMWA told BNA: “We are glad this odd incident is behind us and that Patriot has changed its mind and is willing to return to the bargaining table.”  

On Tuesday, negotiators from Patriot Coal walked out of talks with the Mine Workers (UMWA), leaving thousands of retirees in danger of losing their health care. The company also canceled talks scheduled through next week, UMWA reports via press release. UMWA President Cecil Roberts reported that the company and the union were only about $30 million to $35 million apart. Meanwhile, hundreds of high-paid executives at the company will be receiving about $25 million in bonuses.

Join Saru Jayaraman on Wednesday, June 12, from 2–3 p.m. EDT for the sixth in the AFL-CIO series of live online discussions on how we build a movement for the future of working people. Jayaraman, co-founder and co-director of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC)—and the AFL-CIO—want to hear your ideas. She poses this question:

Workers at Sunny Day Car Wash in the Bronx, N.Y., who joined the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) last year, ratified a three-year contract this week. The pact mirrors the contract the workers made with another carwash in Queens less than two weeks ago.

After watching the continued decline in the number of Oregon workers winning a voice at work, the Oregon AFL-CIO “decided to do something different,” says state federation President Tom Chamberlain. That something different was unions working together. Since late 2011, Oregon unions have been able to craft a number of significant victories for workers who want a voice on the job. Says Chamberlain:

By working together, we have achieved something phenomenal.

Some 100 Chicago Sun-Times photographers who were abruptly fired last week, when the paper shuttered its entire 28-member photo department and their supporters, marched outside the Sun-Times building this morning to protest the paper’s “union-busting” and what they say was bad faith bargaining by the Sun-Times.

Leading up to the 2013 AFL-CIO Convention, we’re asking union members, working families and ally groups all over the country to give us their ideas on how we can build a stronger movement for working people.

These discussions on the future of the labor movement have spanned from Facebook and Twitter to our 2013 convention website and 39 in-person listening sessions in the states, with more than 45 more in the works.

The photographers and photo editors the Chicago Sun-Times fired without warning last week, when it eliminated its entire photo department, will picket and rally outside the Sun-Times building tomorrow, June 6, 8–9 a.m. CDT. If you are in Chicago, you can join them at the intersection of Franklin and N. Orleans streets.