As day one of the government shutdown continues, many people are left wondering what happened? If the leaders of both parties said they didn't want the government to shut down and President Barack Obama, along with congressional Democrats, were poised to negotiate in good faith and make reasonable compromises, how did we get where we are?

Are you a bit lost in what's going on with the House Republican shutdown of the federal government? Don't know if the federal government offices that you need are open or closed? AFSCME is on the job to provide you with up-to-date information about the status of the federal government at GOPshutdownlive.com.

House Republicans are proceeding with plans that would force a government shutdown, despite the fact that America's working families overwhelmingly disapprove of their tactics.  In a CBS/New York Times poll last week, 80% of respondents said that it would be unacceptable for lawmakers to threaten a shutdown to achieve their goals, yet that's exactly what Republicans are doing.

As part of the AFL-CIO's ongoing book club series, author Anat Shenker-Osorio will be discussing her book Don't Buy It: The Trouble with Talking Nonsense about the Economy at AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C., Thursday, Oct. 3, from noon to 2 p.m. Attendees are invited to bring their lunches, and beverages will be provided.

The widely respected Pew Charitable Trusts is engaged in a major ongoing campaign with right-wing Enron billionaire John Arnold to undercut public pensions across the country, writes David Sirota in a report released Thursday for the Institute for America's Future. According to Sirota, Pew positions itself as a nonpartisan organization dedicated to the public interest, but when it comes to pensions, Pew has taken an extreme position and allied itself with conservative activists bent on undoing public pension programs across the country to protect corporate subsidies.

Jersey City, N.J., became the sixth city to require paid sick days for employees at private businesses after the City Council passed the new rules on a 7–1 vote.  Mayor Steven Fulop (D) is a supporter of the measure and is expected to sign it into law.

As recently reported, conservatives across the country are stepping up their assaults on the pensions of public workers. But it isn't just at the local government level that such attacks are happening. Legislation that would change or cut public pensions are being pursued in several states, including Oklahoma. Much like the proposals you see in the cities, Tulsa World is reporting Gov. Mary Fallin (R) and Republican legislative leaders are pushing a plan to switch pensions for state workers from defined-benefit plans to defined-contribution plans, which could amount to massive cuts in retiree benefits. The switch would leave many, including those who are not part of the Social Security system, in poverty.

In the first of many concrete moves after the AFL-CIO passed a resolution at its national convention to create new and lasting community partnerships to open and broaden the labor movement, the federation announced today that it entered a new national partnership with United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS).  The primary goals of the new alliance are to strengthen workers' rights and build power for students and workers. One of the major themes of the national convention was the need for the AFL-CIO to make the labor movement more open and to forge stronger alliances with non-labor groups, and this is the first step down that path.

This past Saturday, a number of college football players from Georgia, Georgia Tech and Northwestern wrote the letters APU on the gear they wore during televised games. APU stands for "All Players United" and is a campaign just launched by the National College Players Association (NCPA). The NCPA is advocating for reforms to college football and other sports sponsored by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) that would protect the health and safety of college athletes and give players a fair share of the millions of licensing dollars the schools earn through the use of representations of the players.

Members of the Mine Workers (UMWA) are rallying in St. Louis today, encircling the headquarters of Peabody Energy, as part of ongoing efforts to make the company and associated companies live up to the obligations they made to their workers. While the union reached an agreement with Patriot Coal to make sure that retired miners who primarily worked for Peabody receive those benefits, the long-term funding for those benefits has not yet been secured. Those health care costs were spun off into Patriot, which subsequently filed for bankruptcy. Today's rally is aimed at making Peabody live up to its obligations and fund health care for its retirees.