In a major win for nurses, patients and three Texas communities, registered nurses (RNs) in El Paso, Corpus Christi and Brownsville gave final approval to contracts yesterday in first-ever collective bargaining agreements, reports National Nurses United (NNU). 

Texas AFL-CIO Communications Director Ed Sills sends us this report from his daily e-mail newsletter. Sign up for the Texas AFL-CIO E-News at labor@texasaflcio.org.   

A three-judge federal panel ruled Tuesday that Texas’ redrawing of political boundaries for Congress and the legislature discriminated against Hispanics and must be set aside under the federal Voting Rights Act.

Cristina Tzintzun, executive director of the Workers Defense Project, and Michael Cunningham, executive director and secretary/treasurer of the Texas State Building and Construction Trades Council, send us this. 

Few construction labor leaders have ever thought of Texas as an easy place to organize. The state legislature is controlled by a super majority of Republicans that are sternly anti-immigrant and anti-worker. Construction business interests have a firm grip on the legislature. The biggest Republican donor in the state is Bob Perry, of Perry Homes, one of the largest home builders in Texas. That is why the efforts of unions and community groups to reform the construction industry in the state are so significant.

Instead of getting angry over labor issues, have fun and project that fun through social media, two nationally known progressives told an audience of activists at Texas AFL-CIO headquarters.

Justin Krebs, a “political and cultural entrepreneur” who co-founded Living Liberally and wrote 538 Ways to Live, Work and Play Like a Liberal, and Negin Farsad, a comedian and filmmaker named one of the “50 Funniest Women” by Huffington Post, said humor and the use of networks like Twitter can reach people who might not have been disposed to listen to a drier union message.

“Comedy can be a Trojan horse, in a way,” Krebs said, during a workshop held as part of labor’s “Work Connects Us All” activities during the South by Southwest music, film and interactive festivals in Austin.

Autumn has come and gone in Bastrop, Texas, but many of those who lost homes and possessions in the raging late-summer wildfires there still need help. This week, Philip Lawhon jumped at the chance to use his skills as an electrician to keep the Bastrop relief effort humming.

Texas AFL-CIO communications director Ed Sills sends us this report:

The Texas AFL-CIO donated $150 gift cards to nine Central Texas volunteer fire departments that battled the rash of summer blazes.

Dave Johnson, a fellow at the Campaign for America’s Future, sends us this.

Millions of Americans need work and America’s infrastructure is in need of repair and modernization. This is work that has to be done eventually no matter what—millions of jobs that need to be done at a time when millions of people are looking for jobs. Thousands of people are joining “This bridge needs work and so do we!” rallies across the country to show support for President Obama’s American Jobs Act.

In less than a year, Texas wildfires have consumed 3.6 million acres, roughly the size of Connecticut, notes Paul Begala, an affiliated professor of public policy at Georgetown and Daily Beast and CNN contributor. Four people have been killed and some 1,400 homes have been lost just in the most recent fire. Of the 10 largest wildfires in Texas history, six have occurred this year. Yet, as Begala points out:

Texas governor and GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry has cut funding for volunteer firefighters, who are the first responders to 90 percent of all wildfires in Texas, by 75 percent.