Check out the AFL-CIO's new Innovators website feature, "Working America: Another Way to Join the Movement." 

One day in Havertown, Pa., a neighborhood organizer in a red shirt knocked on Vicki’s door, asking how Vicki felt about cuts in her state’s school budget. A retired school teacher who has a grandson with special needs, Vicki worried the cuts her governor was pushing would eliminate resources for special education. 

Vicki was already angry about these cuts. She felt that one of the most important people in her life was being targeted. But until that day, she felt powerless to do anything about it. Like so many people, she thought she couldn’t change the process, and that her elected leaders weren’t listening. Then someone showed up at her door with a solution—a strategy to change things.

Read the rest of "Working America: Another Way to Join the Movement."

Grassroots activists will be able to direct how the field program operates with Workers' Voice's new, innovative online tool called RePurpose. 

RePurpose is a way for campaign volunteers to gain points based on activities through Workers' Voice, whether it is phone banking, knocking on doors or taking action online. 

Have you ever been browsing the aisles of the grocery store hoping to remember all those union-made products the AFL-CIO Now blog wrote about? Or maybe you’re at the toy store trying to find that perfect gift that’s made in America? Union Plus has a simple solution if you left your shopping list at home.

On your mobile device:

• Text CARS to 22555 for union-made vehicles.
• Text BEER to 22555 for union-made beer.
• Text PETS to 22555 for union-made pet products.
• Text CANDY to 22555 for union-made candy.
• Text TOYS to 22555 for union-made toys.

If you’re watching NFL football on CBS this Sunday, watch for a new ad from the Electrical Workers (IBEW). The union’s 30-second commercial spotlighting IBEW members will air during the pre- and post-game shows and during the games. Says IBEW President Edwin Hill:

Our ad is a reminder that real people bring their skills to work every day to provide our nation with the power and the electrical and communications infrastructure that are often taken for granted. And in the case of our members, the people behind this success are making a decent living and are part of the fabric of their communities and the backbone of North America.

Today the AFL-CIO Now blog daily e-mail has a new look—streamlined and straightforward, with the top news stories of the day. Just click on the headlines to get the latest news for working families and union activists. Tell us what you think. Don't subscribe?  Sign up for the AFL-CIO Now blog e-mail. 

If you've been glued to the couch all week watching the Democratic National Convention and the NFL season's kickoff, you're probably itching to get out of the house for a little bit. Our friends at Labor 411, the union business directory from the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, have compiled a handy list for union date night. 

We've written before about the congressionally manufactured Postal Service "crisis," but this infographic from Delivering for America illustrates why a mandate to pre-fund 75 years of retirement in just 10 short years put the Postal Service under financial strain. Download the "The Truth About the Postal Service Finances" infographic. 

A 2007 Boston Globe report on college admissions data that has been making the rounds on Twitter lately reveals that “about 15 percent of freshmen enrolled at America's highly selective colleges are white teens who failed to meet their institutions' minimum admissions standards,” most of whom “are students who gained admission through their ties to people the institution wanted to keep happy, with alumni, donors, faculty members, administrators and politicians topping the list.”

While this week, Vice President Joe Biden and others thanked unions and working people for their contributions to the economy, we heard quite the opposite last week from Republican National Convention (RNC) speakers like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who took every opportunity to speak out against teachers and people who work for a living. 

Watch the AFL-CIO YouTube video highlighting some of these comments we heard from Tampa, Fla., last week. 

This is a cross-post from the Fire Fighters (IAFF) union. 

IAFF Local 48 member Doug Stern from Cincinnati spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., Tuesday night.

Stern says for the majority of his life he identified as a Republican. But with last year’s political assault on Ohio’s public employees, he felt that the Republican Party left him and other members of the middle class behind.