In the early hours of Aug. 3, the AFL-CIO Union Veterans Council organized a group of national union leaders and activists to participate in the washing of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. As the sun rose over the Three Service Members Statue, volunteers received a welcome from the Vietnam Veterans of America, saluted the memorial and observed a moment of silence.

Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) International President Matthew D. Loeb was re-elected unanimously this morning to serve another four-year term in the position he has held since 2008. The vote came during the last session of IATSE’s 67th Quadrennial Convention being held in Boston for the past week at the Boston Sheraton Hotel.   

Joe Corbin and Susan Kelleher, married Theatrical Stage Employees stagehands from Local 22, talk about preparing for this year's "A Capitol Fourth" celebration on the West Lawn of the Capitol.

When most people think about union members, they probably picture blue-collar workers in factories. Maybe teachers, police, firefighters and other government employees come to mind.

But workers in many more fields come together in unions to have a voice on the job to improve their lives and the lives of their families—from rocket scientists at NASA (members of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers [IFPTE]) to actors like Alec Baldwin (a member of SAG-AFTRA) and all across the spectrum of work that goes on in the United States.

More than 1,500 people rallied Tuesday on Capitol Hill in support of working families and to tell Congress not to make any benefit cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. They also told Congress to close tax loopholes for big corporations and the wealthiest 2% and to prevent the sequester from going into effect and harming the country. Throughout the rally, working families spoke with a unified voice calling for "jobs, not cuts."

In New Orleans this Super Bowl week, there are plenty of fans sporting 49ers' red and gold caps and jerseys and Ravens' purple and black gear. But there also are thousands of union members—including many from unions in the Greater New Orleans AFL-CIO (GNO)—who proudly display their union label and are making the game possible and the fan experience in the Crescent City run smoothly.

Stagehands in West Palm Beach, Fla., will secure regular work and share some $2.2 million in back pay after Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 500 and the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts reached agreement on a five-year contract that settles charges in a dispute that began in 2001.

The agreement was reached in late December and approved today by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Thomas N. Sico, a member of State and Theatrical Employees (IATSE) Local 12 in Columbus, Ohio, wrote the following letter to IATSE officers about President Obama’s support for using IATSE members at a Monday campaign rally in Columbus.  IATSE President Matthew Loeb forwarded the letter to us.

I know we are all tired of seeing political ads, but please take a moment to read this before you head to the polls today. Over the last few days political history happened in Columbus Ohio and IATSE Local 12 was at the center of it.

This is a cross-post from the California Labor Federation’s blog, Labor’s Edge, by Communications Director Steve Smith.

We’ve seen a lot of big numbers this election. The Koch brothers' super PAC spent $4 million to back the deceptive Prop 32. Billionaire Charles Munger Jr. kicked in $35 million against Prop. 30 and for Prop. 32. A shady Arizona group that refuses to disclose its donors funneled $11 million into our state to attack California schools and workers. But now, there’s only one number that matters: 35,000. That’s the number of union volunteers fanning out across the state, in communities big and small, to fight the big-money interests behind the attacks on Prop. 30 and the fraudulent ads backing Prop. 32.

Hotel workers, broadcast technicians, TV and theater employees are just some of the workers who’ve recently joined AFL-CIO unions.

The 705 workers at Levy Restaurants at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., the new home of the Brooklyn Nets, won union recognition with UNITE HERE Local 1 through a majority sign-up agreement in which an employer agrees to recognize the worker’s choice of a union when a majority of workers sign union authorization cards.