Check this out. Next week, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue will make a rare joint appearance to promote jobs legislation. They will appear Feb. 16 before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee at 10 a.m. to speak out on the need for quick action on a new jobs-creating transportation bill.

Creating new and good jobs is the most urgent task facing our nation’s leaders and Americans who are unemployed or whose wages are stagnating cannot afford to wait any longer. Until we fix the jobs crisis, economic growth and fiscal stability will be hard to achieve, AFL-CIO Policy Director Damon Silvers told a congressional hearing today.

Today, the U.S. Senate has the opportunity to tackle job creation head on when it takes up the reauthorization bill for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The bill includes $8 billion for airport construction and repair and some 280,000 jobs are at stake.

Barbara J. Easterling is president of the Alliance for Retired Americans. She was previously the secretary-treasurer of the Communications Workers of America. For more information, visit www.retiredamericans.org or
call 1-800-333-7212.

I believe there are two issues retirees should pay attention to in 2011.

It seems simple enough. Employers already keep a record for workplace injuries and illnesses—why not add a column to the report for musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs)—ergonomic injuries? The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) would provide the form and employers would simply put a check mark in the right place to identify which injuries are MSDs. But now OSHA is withdrawing the rule, which applies only to small businesses, from final review to get further input from small businesses.

In a new video, National Nurses United (NNU) brings nurses and citizens across the country together to say, “Stand Up, President Obama! We’re looking for the president we voted for.” They’re urging him to stand up to corporate power and monied interests.

Here’s an opportunity for working Americans to ask President Obama a question. After the State of the Union address tomorrow, the president is conducting a special YouTube interview at the White House, in which he will answer questions.

Ben Horowitz, a researcher for Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) District Council 15, reports on a protest this morning demanding accountability from homebuilding giant PulteGroup.

PulteMortgage CEO Debra Still came face to face today with workers from the Building Justice campaign and their allies, demanding to know how her company is spending the public’s money.

The Obama administration today announced a new rule on how the wage rates employers must pay to H-2B temporary foreign workers will be calculated. But the new rule does not take effect until 2012.

Every October, Anita’s parents fall into the Medicare prescription drug donut hole, and some of their medications cost $30 per pill. The new health care reform law already has begun to close that gap in coverage and eventually will eliminate it all together.