The budget that President Obama released today is drawing intense criticism for its cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka called those cuts “wrong and indefensible.”

A president’s budget is more than just numbers. It is a profoundly moral document. We believe cutting Social Security benefits and shifting costs to Medicare beneficiaries—while exempting corporate America from shared sacrifice—is wrong and indefensible. 

Before the National Rifle Association press conference today with NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, who claimed having armed cops in schools would end gun violence in schools, AFT President Randi Weingarten and the National Education Association (NEA) President Dennis Van Roekel released a statement to proposals to arm teachers from Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas). 

Here’s a look at other reactions to today’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act, including the requirement to purchase health insurance.

AFT:

At a time when so many Americans are struggling to get by and students continue to graduate from college with a mountain of debt and few job prospects, this law puts health care within reach for working families, keeps our communities healthier and ensures that Americans can get the treatment they need, when they need it, without battling big insurance companies. We need to work together to build upon the success of the Affordable Care Act, not prolong partisan attempts to tear it apart.

Kenneth Bernstein, a National Board Certified Social Studies teacher at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt. Md. sends us this report.  He is a nationally known as a blogger on education and other topics as “teacherken”

Yesterday, Oct. 5, was World Teachers Day.  As you can see at UNESCO’s website, the annual celebration honors “the essential role of teachers in providing quality education at all levels.”   The day is the anniversary of the 1966 signing of The Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers adopted by the Special Intergovernmental Task Force on Teachers.

Michael Lisi is the winner of the 2011 Max Steinbock Award, the highest honor given by the International Labor Communications Association (ILCA). Lisi, who writes for the United University Professions’ (UUP) “The Voice,” won for his story “Speaking Up for SUNY.”

The NFL Players Association charged team owners with collusion to restrict thelr rights, and more news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,300 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.

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.