In a time of widespread calls for education "reform" that are little more than thinly veiled attempts at privatizing schools, the AFT has a new proposal that would actually help solve some of the problems American education faces. The AFT Teacher Preparation Task Force released a report, Raising the Bar—Aligning and Elevating Teacher Preparation and the Teaching Profession, that recommends the equivalent of a "bar" exam for teachers, similar to the tests that lawyers have to pass before they can legally practice.

Can't Stand It is a cross-post from Working America’s Dear David workplace advice column. David knows you deserve to be treated fairly on the job and he’s available to answer your questions, whether it is co-workers making off-handed comments that you should retire or you feel like your job's long hours are causing stress.

Question:

Are there any laws that protect workers who are required to stand all day? For example, I noticed that the pharmacists at a large chain drug store aren't allowed to sit at their computers and must stand all day. I asked some of the workers about it, and they said that they end up suffering leg pain as a result. Do OSHA standards apply here? Can anything be done about it? It seems as if this would be an issue that would affect a lot of other workers in the service industry, such as those who work in hair salons.

—Anthony, New York

D. Taylor, leader of UNITE HERE’s Local 226 (the Culinary Workers Union) in Las Vegas, has been elected president of the national union. He replaces John Wilhelm, who served as president since 2009.

It's only fitting the musical version of the story of the 1899 Newsboys Strike in New York City would garner the Actors' Equity (AEA) Advisory Committee on Chorus Affairs (ACCA) Sixth Annual ACCA Award for Outstanding Broadway Chorus. The Broadway musical lifts up the true events of newsboys (a.k.a. "newsies") who organized together in a successful two-week strike against newspaper giants Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst for better wages. 

This Thanksgiving, Leslie Martes, program and outreach director at The Voter Participation Center, is thankful her father, John, had access to union retiree health care benefits. Without that health care plan, it's likely John wouldn't have lived to celebrate the holiday with his family.  

"Avoid Post-Holiday Spender's Remorse" is a cross-post from Union Plus. 

Opening gifts each December is a ton of fun. Opening the resulting bills in January is not. Yet every holiday season millions of consumers use their credit cards to finance gifts they don’t have the cash to pay for. Consider the following before you start shopping this holiday season.

There are only two legal ways out of debt – cutting expenses or increasing your income. Decide which works for you and commit to it before you start shopping.

Prioritize.  What’s more important?  Paying your mortgage and buying food or giving gifts you can’t afford?  Consider shortening your gift list or giving smaller gifts to adults.  In times like these, friends and family understand.

If you're traveling for the holidays and need to find a hotel, UNITE HERE has a handy iPhone and iPad app to help you locate a union hotel. 

Download the free UNITE HERE Union Hotels Guide app now.

Check out the AFL-CIO's new Innovators website feature, "Ironworkers Tap for Savings."

Steve Lehmann used to drive hundreds of miles each week shuttling around paperwork; now he flips back the cover of his iPad.

“Sometimes I’d drive an hour and 45 minutes from the office to the job site, then go back and forth with new blueprints,” Lehmann says. “That’s just a lot of time.”

Lehmann, an ironworker working as a project manager at Bennett Steel Inc. in Sapulpa, Okla., can access updated sets of blueprints or revised drawings on his tablet through a handful of apps—a big change in how paperwork is handled in the construction industry.

As you prepare to head to the grocery store to pick up your Thanksgiving dinner ingredients, double check your shopping list to make sure your Turkey Day fixin's are all union made in America. Check out some highlights from the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor's resource site, Labor 411. Here are some of the best union-made Thanksgiving eats and tools from the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM), Machinists (IAM), United Steelworkers (USW) and United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).

You can help “Brotherhood Outdoors,” the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance’s (USA's) union-dedicated hunting and fishing TV show, take home back-to-back awards as the top hunting and fishing show on the Sportsman Channel and earn a chance to win a trip for two to Las Vegas. Voting for the channel’s 2012 Sportsman Choice Awards runs through Nov. 18 on the Sportsman Channel Facebook page.