The 17-year-old  Michigan factory worker who was the inspiration for the iconic World War II Rosie the Riveter, “We Can Do It” poster, died Dec. 26 in Lansing, Mich. Geraldine Doyle was  86.

House Republicans have put repealing health care reform at the top of their to-do list.  Their fight against the Affordable Care Act is not only pure partisan politics, it is also an attack against the millions of regular working people and seniors who benefit from the new law.

When the Apollo Alliance released its Clean Transportation Manufacturing Action Plan (TMAP) in October (click here for detailed coverage) one of its key job-creating recommendations was ensuring that American manufacturers and U.S. workers supply the rail cars, tracks and other mass transit equipment to modernize the nation’s mass transportation system.

Happy New Year from the 12 million members of the AFL-CIO.

I wish all the best for you and your family, for our unions and for our nation in 2011. And I know you share that wish.

In the global economic race, the United States is coming in second—and one of the major reasons is that we have stopped making things in this country. A recent poll shows the public thinks it’s going to be that way for awhile. Only one in five Americans say the U.S. economy is the world’s strongest. Nearly half (47 percent) say China’s economy is stronger and only one in three expects the United States to regain the top spot in the next 20 years. Nearly three-fifths of those surveyed say that increasing competition from lower-paid workers around the world will keep living standards for average Americans from growing as fast as they did in the past.

Kay Tillow, a veteran union activist from Louisville, can inspire us all as we start the New Year. “Set a stout heart to a steep hillside” is an old Scottish proverb that reminds me of Tillow, who’s executive director of the Nurses Professional Organization.

The union movement received a fresh dose of solidarity today with the signing of a historic agreement with the 2.8 million National Education Association and the approval of new charters that bring two more unions into the AFL-CIO fold.

The AFL-CIO Executive Council, holding its winter meetings this week in San Diego, today unanimously approved an unprecedented new partnership with the National Education Association that will further strengthen and unify the labor movement and bolster its ability to meet the needs of working families.