IUE-CWA President James D. Clark has been honored as a “Champion of Change for Corporate Environmental Responsibility” by the Obama administration. Clark is cited for his union’s work in helping to train union members to identify energy efficiency opportunities that improve environmental performance and the competitiveness of manufacturing.

Tributes continue to come in for Mark Ayers, president of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD), who died unexpectedly April 8 at age 63. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka calls Ayers an “extraordinary leader and friend.”

With the Union Plus Auto Buying Program and the Union Plus AT&T Smart Phone Rebate, union members have two new ways to save on automobiles and smart phones through their Union Plus benefits.

Mark Ayers, president of the Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD) and an AFL-CIO vice president, passed away yesterday morning. Prior to his election in 2007, Ayers served as the director of the Construction and Maintenance Department of the Electrical Workers (IBEW). A U.S. Navy veteran, Ayers also chaired the AFL-CIO Union Veterans Council.

Bruce Springsteen has chronicled a working-class world through the eyes of young dreamers full of hope and ambition and those beaten down by an economy that has shuttered factories and shattered dreams--a musical indictment of economic injustice. But to many young people, Bruce is their parents’ music. University of Wisconsin professor Craig Werner is opening up Springsteen’s world to a new generation.

Our friends at American Rights at Work (ARAW) have just launched a new feature to help consumers find union-made products. The Union Shop: A Guide to What’s Union-Made (click here) breaks products into sections from Apparel to Home Improvements, Sweets and Snacks and many more to help buyers use their purchasing power to support good U.S. jobs.

If your kids are going to get a sugar buzz from their Easter basket treasures, you can at least make sure it’s a union-made sugar buzz. Our friends at Union Plus have a handy candy guide to union-made treats.

On this week’s episode of “Brotherhood Outdoors,” Dan McNally, Fred Popplewell and Kevin Crum, members of Plumbers and Pipe Fitters (UA) Local 597 in Chicago—and longtime fishing buddies—head out on a Lake Michigan trout and salmon fishing adventure with show host Tom Ackerman.

Tax season. Ouch.

Zachary Teutsch, director of the AFL-CIO’s Investor Education Project, offers several resources to help you learn how to file your taxes for free, maybe get a bigger refund and avoid the pitfalls of refund anticipation loans.

Kaiser Permanente health care workers are launching a “strike” at public health problems, including obesity and chronic disease. Today, more than 500 will kick off the campaign by taking over a major Hollywood tourist mecca, Hollywood and Highland.