Here’s AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka today on the debt-ceiling charade:

Yesterday Congressional Republicans showed what their agenda really is: They are willing to destroy our economy and jobs to protect tax breaks for billionaires. Working people stand with the President in his call to stop this dangerous charade and extend the debt limit past November 2012 immediately and without conditions.

There are major differences between the education reform outlined in AFT’s Quality Agenda and the agenda being pushed by self-styled education reformers, AFT President Randi Weingarten told about 2,000 educators at AFT’s Teach 2011 Conference last week.

July 30 will mark the 46th anniversary of the Medicare and Medicaid programs and seniors across the country plan to march and lobby to make sure there are many more anniversaries to come.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited 182 workplaces—two-thirds of them construction firms—in its year-old severe violator enforcement program (SVEP), according to BNA’s Daily Labor Report (DLR—subscription required).

The next time you download music, a TV program or a video game from the Internet, you may get an alert that you are about to steal copyrighted material.

Internet service providers, payment system operators and motion picture and recording industry officials reached two voluntary agreements last week that will help curb digital theft, copyright infringement and product counterfeiting on the Web.

If the nation’s workers had access to paid sick days—today, 44 million workers don’t—it would mean a dramatic  drop in hospital emergency room visits and save about $1 billion a year in health care costs, according to a new study due to be released this week.

With free trade agreements between the United States and Panama, South Korea and Colombia set to hit the congressional floor as soon as this month, lawmakers should check out recent polling which shows American voters are overwhelmingly opposed to trade deals that end up sending jobs overseas.

Today as we hear that Social Security cuts may be on the table in the federal budget deficit talks, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and other union and progressive leaders, including House Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid, have come out strongly in opposition to such moves. Trumka says that “at a time when retirement security remains an elusive goal for most Americans, cuts to Social Security benefits – in whatever form they take – should not be on the table.

Dozens of AFGE members, other union allies and activists protested outside the district offices of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA)  and Rep. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) last week. to bring attention to the lawmakers’ anti-worker, anti-middle class policies.

Senate Republicans who nearly worship at the feet of free trade agreements—to heck with their devastating impact on U.S. workers—boycotted an opportunity to move the most recent free trade holy trinity of South Korea, Colombia and Panama deals closer to a vote.