This is a cross-post from the Machinists (IAM). The labor movement and the faith community have long held shared goals of equality and opportunity. Each Labor Day, Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) and the AFL-CIO sponsortheLabor in the Pulpits/on the Bimah/in the Minbar program, which highlights these shared goals. Click here to find out more.

Union members have always found time to help out their communities. Click here to read about laid-off Taylor, Mich., Fire Fighters (IAFF) members refusing to let the heat stand in the way of their annual fundraising drive for the Muscular Dystrophy Association and here to see how several unions in McKeesport, Pa., are supporting local Boys and Girls Clubs.

With the already high cost of college growing each semester, working families are finding it hard to afford higher education for their children. Union Plus, part of Union Privilege, the consumer benefits arm of the AFL-CIO, is helping union members reach their education savings goals with Union Plus college savings grants.

This is a cross-post from the Actors’ Equity website.

Stages St. Louis opened its 25th season with the smash hit “A Chorus Line” and a check for $25,000 to the Red Cross benefiting the Missouri Tornado and Flood Relief Fund. The cast presented the check to Red Cross Executive Director Cindy Erickson at its June 29 performance.

If you’re not one of the 58,000 people who’ve checked out the trio of fun videos on our new website—Collective Bargaining: Real people. Real Impact—you’re missing a good dose of timely satire. Produced by Laughing Liberally and the AFL-CIO, the videos use wry humor to demonstrate the importance of collective bargaining. You’ll see just how bad things can get if workers don’t have a voice at the bargaining table–from pay cuts and benefit attacks all the way to “Paid Child Fun Time” (also known as child labor) and other schemes hatched by bosses who have the negotiating table all to themselves. Not even a pizza party makes those any easier to swallow.

This is a cross post from AFT:

AFT President Randi Weingarten returned today from Egypt, where she met in Cairo with leaders of Egyptian unions instrumental in the recent political and governmental changes there. She noted that AFT, as part of its recognition of the vital role of public employees around the world, has joined with the Council of Global Unions in the worldwide “Quality Public Services—Action Now!” campaign. That effort was launched last week on United Nations Public Service Day.

AFL-CIO Community Services Director Will Fischer sends this report from the Lehigh Valley (Pa.) Labor Council.

Since 1999 in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, the local labor movement has been helping teenagers and pre-teens develop leadership, teamwork and planning skills through TeenWorks. Developed by former AFL-CIO Community Service Liaison Ron Achey and funded entirely by Lehigh valley unions, TeenWorks allows young people to decide how to allocate grants for and plan community service projects.

Jennifer Wright Dorr of Union Plus reports on financial aid available to union members facing hardships from the recent severe weather.

Union members who are facing financial hardship due to the recent severe storms, tornadoes and flooding, and who participate in Union Plus programs, may be eligible for financial help.

Global unions are reaching out to Japanese workers and their families following the massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan, likely claimed more than 10,000 lives and left half a million people homeless.