Washington Nationals wunderkind outfielder Bryce Harper works hard.

Where does he get that work ethic? His father, a union ironworker from Las Vegas, who installs rebar on construction sites in sometimes extreme conditions. 

Check out this clip from ESPN's "Bryce Begins." The entire special aired Tuesday night.

As we approach International Workers' Day, also known as May Day, it's hard not to wonder about the future of the labor movement, and whether or not young people in the United States will wake up and see that joining labor unions could be a part of the solution to the nation's 22.9% youth unemployment rate.

The United States is the wealthiest large economy in the world. Yet, for some reason, we can't seem to find a way to invest in our nation's children. 

A new UNICEF paper, Child Well-Being in Rich Countries, looks at how wealthy countries are raising their children. It examines "children’s well-being in terms of material conditions (related to household-income levels); health and safety; education; risky behavior (such as excessive alcohol consumption); and physical environment, including housing conditions."

Wednesday, May 1, is May Day, when working families, labor unions and their allies will be celebrating the holiday honoring workers and uniting in the struggle for immigrant and workers' rights.

Ed Sills of the Texas AFL-CIO sends us this:

My wife and I are big fans of “The Good Wife,” which, besides the inspired-by-real-events plotline—a wife “stands by” a cheating politician who has a statewide profile—is as fine a legal procedural as I have seen on television. The show combines a “case-of-the-week” approach with the ongoing soap-opera-style plot, and it pops.

In 2011, the labor movement committed, as part of the Clinton Global Initiative, to help facilitate $20 million in investment in energy-efficient retrofits. Today President Clinton joined AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and AFT President Randi Weingarten for a ribbon-cutting ceremony as work begins on an energy efficiency retrofit of the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka responds to the explosions in Boston:

Our thoughts and prayers are with the families who have lost loved ones in the Boston explosions, and those who are coping with the aftermath of such senseless violence. We condemn those who carried out these acts and practice such hatred. 

While reports are still coming in about the tragedy at the Boston Marathon, Fire Fighters (IAFF) union sends us this update:

Boston Fire and EMS Detailed to Scene of Explosions at Boston Marathon.

Saru Jayaraman, co-director and co-founder of ROC-United, will appear on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" tonight at 10 p.m. EDT to discuss the importance of raising the tipped minimum wage for our country's 10 million restaurant workers. 

If you have HBO, be sure to tune in. 

AFL-CIO will be hosting two powerful Book Club events in Washington, D.C., that will help explain the current state of the U.S. economy, income inequality and the politics of austerity. On Monday, April 15, Nobel Prize-winning author Joseph Stiglitz will be discussing his book The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future. On Tuesday, April 16, Robert Kuttner will talk about his book Debtors' Prison: The Politics of Austerity Versus Possibility.