With the unemployment rate for black workers nearly double that of whites, the National Urban League’s “State of Black America” report shows the recession is impacting people of color much worse than the rest of the nation. To get jobs to people in these communities, the Urban League is encouraging the nation’s leaders to act swiftly and support a $168 billion plan to generate jobs to make sure no one is left behind or left out of economic recovery efforts.

As we approach Tuesday, April 5, the first anniversary of the deadly blast at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch (W.Va.) mine that killed 29 coal miners, the nation’s top mine safety official today called for tougher laws and bigger penalties for safety violators.

Hundreds of people will show their support outside the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday, when the High Court hears oral arguments in what could become the largest class-action civil rights suit in U.S. history.

AFL-CIO Media Outreach fellow, Jennifer Angarita, reports on a national convening of DREAM Act leaders and advocates in Memphis, Tenn.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s attacks on middle-class workers and  state employees’ bargaining rights has nothing to do with a budget deficit and everything to do with paying back politicians who helped him get elected, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said today.

Inspired by the  popular protests in Egypt, around the world and in states like Wisconsin, National Nurses United (NNU) today launched a news line designed to help coordinate and encourage grassroots protests in the United States.

The U.S. House today defeated, 250-176, an amendment that would have defunded the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The proposed amendment to H.R. 1, the Full Year Continuing Appropriations Act of 2011, would have set a funding level for the NLRB that was so draconian it would have defunded the agency completely through the end of the fiscal year in September.

The president of the nation’s largest federal employees’ union that represents Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and U.S. marshals today issued the following statement after the Tuesday night ambush of two ICE agents in Mexico, one of whom was killed, and the Wednesday morning shooting in West Virginia that resulted in the killing of one federal marshal and wounding of two other marshals in the line of duty.

How bad is the Republican federal budget proposal? AFL-CIO Legislative Director Bill Samuel describes it as an “all-out assault against middle-class Americans.”

Back when flight attendants were stewardesses and airline ads promoted their good looks and winsome smiles to get you on board, these hardworking airline employees had no job safety and health protection.  Today, flight attendants still are not covered by the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and most of his Republicans colleagues want to keep it that way, just like the old days.