LOOK FOR THE BLOG—The AFL-CIO’s new, unique news blog for working families, AFL-CIO Now, is set to launch Feb. 21. The blog will include frequent daily updates on economic, legislative, political, organizing and other news key to working families. AFL-CIO Now will replace the weekly Work in Progress, which ceases publication after this issue. Those who currently receive WiP by e-mail will automatically get hot topic updates e-mailed to them. There will no longer be any deliveries by fax. If you currently receive WiP by fax and would like to receive the new blog update by e-mail, please go to www.unionvoice.org/wfean/blogsignup.html with your request.

SERVING SENIORS THE USW WAY—Ninety workers at the Marion County (W.Va.) Senior Citizens Inc. voted to join the United Steelworkers International recently. The employees include home health aides, van drivers, meal delivery workers and office staff.

TEACHERS, EDUCATION WORKERS WIN AFT VOICE—More than 200 workers nationwide recently won a voice with AFT. In the Cuba (N.M.) Independent School District, 125 teachers and paraprofessionals voted to join AFT, as did 42 paraprofessionals of the Barnstead (N.H.) Educational Support Team. Also, 28 teachers at the Western New York Maritime Charter School in Buffalo won recognition through majority sign–up, in which the employer agrees to recognize the workers’ choice when a majority signs authorization cards. In Helena, Mont., six pharmacy technicians and clerks at Western Snyders Pharmacy voted for AFT representation.

USW RAMPS UP EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE—Just days after the USW Executive Board approved a huge new mobilization effort to win more co-sponsors for the Employee Free Choice Act as its top legislative priority, the USW helped recruit three more members of the U.S. House of Representatives to co-sponsor the act, bringing total House support for H.R. 1696 to 210. The Senate version of the bill, S. 842, has 42 co-sponsors. Among other provisions, the act would strengthen protections for workers’ freedom to form unions by requiring employers to recognize a union after a majority of workers signs cards authorizing representation. Using its Rapid Response network to mobilize on the grassroots level and reach out to lawmakers in their home districts by dedicating the union’s legislative staff to congressional action, the USW is aiming for a possible vote on the bill this year. For more information on the Employee Free Choice Act, see www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/efca/.

FIGHTING FOR FAIR SHARE—Hundreds of union and community working family activists rallied and lobbied their state lawmakers Feb. 13 in Olympia, Wash., and Denver to approve Fair Share Health Care legislation. The bills would require the largest corporations, such as Wal-Mart, to stop shifting health insurance costs onto workers, taxpayers and other businesses. In Washington, state Senate and House committees have approved the legislation and it could come to a vote this week. In Colorado, a state House committee was considering the Fair Share Health Care legislation Feb. 13. In more than 30 states, working families, their unions and community allies are joining the AFL-CIO in Fair Share Health Care campaigns. Fair Share Health Care legislation will reduce the bill taxpayers pay to cover profitable corporations’ employee health costs, ease the financial strain states face in growing Medicaid costs and help level the playing field between companies that provide good jobs and benefits and those that don’t. For more information, visit www.aflcio.org/issues/legislativealert/stateissues/healthcare/ns01252006.cfm. Washington State working families can visit www.unionvoice.org/campaign/wa_fairshare/ to send a message to their state lawmakers urging them to support Fair Share Health Care legislation. Those in other states can click on www.unionvoice.org/campaign/fairshare_healthcare.

GLOBAL UNIONS COME TOGETHER—More than 550 participants from unions and academic institutions in more than 50 countries examined the impact of globalization and the need for global trade union unity and capacity-building to confront multinational corporations at a conference in New York City hosted by Cornell University Feb. 9–11.  “It is only through the civilizing force of the global trade union movement that we can bring any semblance of humanity to the world of work and stop the dizzying downward spiral of labor standards to the lowest international common denominator,” said AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka, who keynoted the conference. AFL-CIO staff members also led many of the sessions. With many of his union’s members employed by global corporations, USW President Leo Gerard said, “We’ve already formed six global alliances with unions in other countries and we are reinforcing our cross-border networks in dealing with these employers.”

BUSH BREAKS TRADE DEFICIT RECORD—The nation’s trade deficit hit a record $726 billion in 2005, and more than $200 billion of that is owed to China, government figures released Feb. 10 show. “This trade deficit is unsustainable—we cannot sit back as other nations produce the world’s goods and we continue to lose family-supporting, middle-class jobs,” said Trumka. Along with setting the deficit record, the Bush administration’s trade policies have cost nearly 3 million U.S. manufacturing jobs and hundreds of thousands of exported white-collar jobs, he said. “This administration had the chance to prove it could promote trade while being a caretaker of American jobs and the economy. What we’ve found out is that they are not up to this task,” said Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) at a Feb. 8 bipartisan business and labor forum on trade. “Trade deficits of this magnitude threaten not only American living standards but global economic stability,” said Thea Lee, the AFL-CIO’s chief international economist. Visit www.aflcio.org/issues/jobseconomy/ for more information on trade and the global economy.

PRIVATIZATION AND BENEFIT CUTS FOR SOCIAL SECURITY—President Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security and cut benefits may have faded from public view after working families mobilized to derail the scheme last year, but it’s still alive in Bush budget proposals (see the Working Families Lose in Bush Budget item). Buried in the budget—starting on page 321—is the cost for privatizing Social Security starting in 2010—$712 billion over seven years for privatized accounts. Bush also wants to eliminate the Social Security death benefit for survivors as well as benefits for 16- and 17-year-old children of deceased, disabled or retired workers if the youths are not in school. “There they go again. They can’t resist trying to cut Social Security. And to cut a survivor, a widow or widower’s benefits, it just shows how warped the priorities are in this budget,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). For more information, visit www.aflcio.org/issues/retirementsecurity/.

BUDGET DERAILS AMTRAK—The Bush administration’s $400 million budget cut for Amtrak, the nation’s passenger rail system, and the strings attached to the remaining funds are “pulling the plug on Amtrak,” said Edward Wytkind, president of the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department. President Bush’s fiscal year 2006 budget proposal would have eliminated Amtrak funding altogether, but Congress restored $1.3 billion. This year’s budget (see the Working Families Lose in Bush Budget item) calls for $900 million for the rail line, but that money would be granted only when certain so-called reforms are met. “The reality is that the radical conditions attached to this budget make this year’s plan just another retread of what Congress and the American people reject year after year—pulling the plug on Amtrak,” Wytkind said. For more information, visit www.ttd.org.

KATRINA SURVIVORS DEMAND ACTION—More than 400 Hurricane Katrina survivors marched and rallied on Capitol Hill last week to demand a fair and thorough rebuilding plan for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Several testified before Congress about the federal government’s failures during and after the deadly storm and about the slow pace of the rebuilding. “They don’t care because it didn’t happen to them. They didn’t get displaced. They’re not homeless. They’re not jobless,” said Marie Morantine, a New Orleans pre-school special education teacher and AFT member. The AFL-CIO joined ACORN, a grassroots community organizing network, in sponsoring the march and rally.

APWU SETS FUND FOR SHOOTING VICTIMS’ FAMILIES—The Postal Workers have established a memorial fund for the families of the five APWU members who were killed in a Jan. 31 shooting rampage in Goleta, Calif., that claimed seven lives before the shooter killed herself, police said. The APWU victims were Charlotte Colton, 44, survived by her husband and three children; Ze Fairchild, 37, survived by her husband and one child; Nicola Grant, 42, survived by her husband and three children; Dexter Shannon, 58, survived by his wife and five children; and Guadalupe Swartz, 52, survived by two children. Checks or money orders may be sent to: APWU Memorial Fund, Human Relations Department, 1300 L St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005.