In more than 100 events across the country Wednesday, working families rallied outside lawmakers’ offices, federal agencies, military bases and elsewhere to shine a spotlight on the impact of the sequester’s across-the-board cuts that will cost more than 750,000 jobs this year alone and to call for its repeal.

While most of the actions aimed at members of Congress were focused on Republicans who are using the sequester as leverage to get their way in Congress, in Beckley, W.Va., a group of more than 50 AFGE and other union members and community supporters received a shout out of support from Rep. Nick Rahall (D).

On Wednesday, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) introduced the Healthy Families Act, which would give workers the opportunity to earn paid sick leave they could use for personal illnesses or to take care of sick family members, among other uses. The act also would allow workers to use earned sick time to deal with the effects of domestic violence.

Ana Avendaño, assistant to the president and director of immigration and community action at the AFL-CIO, sent the following message to working family activists:

Immigration has been all the buzz here in Washington, and you might have heard about it on your local news or radio station. 

It’s great news, because the story of immigrants in this country is rich and complex, and there’s a lot that goes into finding a road map to citizenship for the 11 million aspiring Americans. 

We’re hosting an online education session next week in the evening for anyone who wants to learn more about why the AFL-CIO is so invested in this fight for a commonsense immigration process. We want you to be there, so every member of our community knows how to talk about this issue. Will you join us?

As part of  Wednesday’s national day of action to repeal the sequester, “Building Unions,” a weekly radio show from the Connecticut AFL-CIO and Greater Hartford Central Labor Council will discuss sequestration, its impact on working families and the drive to repeal the across-the-board budget cuts.

The show airs from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. on WATR 1320 AM. Click on the “Listen Live” button to stream the show that will feature Connecticut AFL-CIO President John Olsen, labor council President Peggy Buchanan and members of AFGE, AFT and the Machinists (IAM).

Jennifer Angarita, national worker center coordinator at the AFL-CIO, sent the following message to working family activists:

I’m going to tell you something very personal: My father finally became a citizen of the United States after almost 30 years of waiting. 

My parents brought me to the United States when I was 13 months old to escape economic hardship and war in Colombia. I grew up in Dallas and my favorite foods were pizza, chocolate chip cookies and empanadas. My parents worked hard to put me through school, and I was proud to be the first person in my family to graduate from college.

Pointing to a New York City nanny who is undocumented and has spent years raising, nurturing and keeping other people’s children safe and attended today’s Senate immigration reform hearing, Ai-Jen Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), told lawmakers:

If immigration reform doesn’t help Pat and domestic workers and undocumented moms throughout our country, then we can’t really call it reform….It’s time we make our immigration policy work for domestic workers.

After a conditional veto of an increase in New Jersey's minimum wage by Gov. Chris Christie (R), working families, the New Jersey State AFL-CIO and a coalition of 151 organizations are pushing for a measure that would raise the state's wage to $8.25 per hour and attach a cost-of-living adjustment to the wage for the future. Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D) and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D) also joined the "Raise the Wage" campaign. In November, voters will be able to decide on the ballot whether or not to increase the minimum wage.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments today in the case of Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona Inc., determining the constitutionality of Arizona’s Prop. 200, a law that requires voters to present certain documents as proof of U.S. citizenship when using the federal form to register to vote at the polls.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka reacted today to the news President Obama will nominate Thomas Perez as the new secretary of labor:

Working men and women will be well served by President Obama’s choice of Tom Perez to lead the Department of Labor.

Throughout his career, Perez has fought to level the playing field and create opportunities for working people, whether in the workplace, the marketplace or the voting booth. He has worked to eliminate discrimination in housing, provide access to education and health care, end hate crimes, crack down on employers who cheat workers out of wages and expand our democracy by protecting the fundamental right of every American to vote. In the 1990’s, he worked on the front lines of the effort to pass comprehensive immigration reform under the leadership of the great Senator Ted Kennedy—a job that will serve him well in today’s drive for commonsense immigration reform.

In an op-ed column in The Miami Herald, William and Mary professor Cindy Hahamovitch traces the history of landowners exploiting temporary agricultural workers in the United States for personal gain. These farm employers are currently calling for more temporary workers to be allowed into the country, and they want fewer regulations on those workers. Hahamovitch points out the irony of the landowners condemning the current system, which is one they helped create and has allowed them to exploit foreign-born workers for decades.