Skilled and alert operators prevent an unknown number of injuries and fatalities on New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) subway tracks each year. Yet in 2012, dozens of people died and scores of others suffered non-fatal injuries on MTA’s tracks. The workers who operate those trains decided to do something about it. They launched a campaign to influence MTA officials to improve track safety.

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.

“Being in a union is more than just looking out for us, we have to look out for the communities not only where we work, but where we live,” says Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) General President Kenneth Rigmaiden.

Last fall, IUPAT kicked off a campaign that would donate a dollar for each new “Like” for its foundation’s Facebook page. IUPAT’s foundation, Painters and Allied Trades for Children’s Hope (PATCH), presented a check for $10,000 to United Cerebral Palsy earlier this year.

This story originally appeared on the AFL-CIO's @Work website. Read more stories about community here. 

As we've covered before, Reconnecting McDowell is a broad community effort including unions, corporations, community groups and local residents to help revitalize struggling McDowell County in West Virginia. The effort has led to many successes and life in McDowell is already improving. The latest success was a fundraising drive led by United Steelworkers (USW) members Karen Shipley and Heather Anderson that raised $5,000 to send kids to a 4-H camp.

Longtime labor leader Clyde Fitzgerald, president of the South Atlantic & Gulf Coast District of the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), has been appointed to serve on the Port Commission of the Port of Houston Authority.  Fitzgerald has worked on the Houston waterfront for 50 years and has been president of ILA Local 28 for two decades.  He is also a vice president in the International ILA.

When an elderly woman on a fixed income couldn't afford an astronomical utility bill that was caused by leaks, local Electrical Workers (IBEW) members stepped in. 

Check out this story on the AFL-CIO's @ Work site in the community section and watch the video in the post. 

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.

The Texas AFL-CIO and Texas AFT partnered this weekend with a Univision station in Houston to promote reading, immigration reform and workers' rights at the Houston edition of the COPA Univision amateur soccer tournament. The event included adult men's and women's and youth teams. During the tournament, several thousand people visited the AFL-CIO/AFT exhibit and volunteers gave out more than 1,800 books to children in attendance. Besides the ice cream truck, the exhibit was the second most popular, said Joe Arabie of the Texas AFL-CIO. 

Does your boss switch your schedule at the last minute without warning? Not ask for your input? Working America, AFL-CIO's community affiliate, launched an interactive web tool for workers who don't have union representation to help them with job-related problems and guidance and solutions for dealing with those concerns. The site, Fix My Job, is part of a collaboration with AFL-CIO's Organizing Department and includes resources from organizers, workplace experts and specialists, as well as more advanced step-by-step instruction, tasks and tactics.

The Letter Carriers' (NALC) annual food drive collected 74.3 million pounds of food and was the second most successful in the program's 21 years. The food was used to restock food banks, pantries and shelters around the country. The total was an increase of 5% over last year and was the highest in a decade.