House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) was in Philadelphia on Monday to promote the expansion of charter schools, vouchers and alternatives to public education. Touring select cities to spread the mantra of school "choice," Cantor made a couple of callous decisions when visiting the City of Brotherly Love. Rather than draw attention to the funding crisis facing Philadelphia’s public schools, he chose to ignore the plight of its 134,000 students. Cantor applauded the rise of charter schools, which have played a direct role in creating the school district’s current crisis.

Nurses at Northside Medical Center in Youngstown, Ohio, conducted a one-day work stoppage Tuesday in their fight against management contract proposals that, among other provisions, would prohibit nurses from speaking out about patient safety and quality care, according to the Youngstown General Duty Nurses Association (YGDNA).

Sign the petition to tell management nurses deserve a fair contract. 

Delegates to the AFL-CIO Convention this afternoon passed a resolution expressing support for the goals of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) but also addressing a number of issues about the ACA's implementation, including the way the ACA treats multi-employer health care plans. The resolution reiterates that the labor movement's ultimate health care goal is health care for everyone under a single-payer model.  

If Texas working families and their unions are going to turn red, right-wing, "right to work" for less Texas blue and replace the corporate-beholden, anti-union politicians with lawmakers who will respect the rights of workers, "We'll have to do it one [state] House district at a time," Richard Shaw, secretary-treasurer of the Harris County (Texas) AFL-CIO Council, told participants at the Winning for Texas Workers action session at the AFL-CIO 2013 Convention this afternoon.

More than 2,000 Mine Workers (UMWA) members and retirees, other union members and faith and community activists rallied outside the St. Louis corporate headquarters of Peabody Energy in the latest action demanding fairness for the active and retired miners caught in the 2012 boardroom-orchestrated bankruptcy of Patriot Coal.

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.

Detractors of public education received a big blow last week when it was revealed that former Indiana schools superintendent Tony Bennett manipulated the state's school grading formula to ensure a charter school run by a major Republican donor received an "A" grade. 

Bennett, who was just recently Florida's education commissioner before he resigned last week, was pressured to step down after the Associated Press published the following email to his chief of staff:

This will be a HUGE problem for us….They need to understand that anything less than an A for Christel House compromises all of our accountability work.

AFT’s just-launched “Reclaiming the Promise of Public Education” initiative aims to ensure that all children have access to services that meet their emotional, social and health needs.

AFT President Randi Weingarten told the nearly 3,000 educators in Washington, D.C., for AFT’s TEACH Conference that teachers are not here to protect the status quo in public education, but to build up and support public education for generations to come.

While working families, civil rights groups and people from all over gathered in cities across the United States yesterday to protest the acquittal of George Zimmerman who shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, AFL-CIO affiliate unions, constituency groups and allies also expressed their shock over the verdict. 

AFSCME President Lee Saunders said in the fight for justice, it's time to stand our ground.

College students and their families are facing even greater obstacles in paying for an already almost out-of-reach college education after a minority of Senate Republicans this week blocked a bill that would have kept federal student loan interests rates from doubling.