The Machinists (IAM) sends us this update:

In a contest overseen by the National Mediation Board (NMB), the IAM today won the election to represent nearly 4,600 Mechanic and Related employees at US Airways. The IAM received 1,903 votes, or 58% of all votes cast in the five-week election, while the Teamsters (IBT) received 1,418 votes, less than 42%.

It was announced yesterday, the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) strike was blocked for a 60-day cooling-off period. A San Francisco Superior Court judge ordered the period requested by California Gov. Jerry Brown.

The Mine Workers (UMWA) union just announced it has reached a settlement with Patriot Coal on new terms and conditions of employment that makes significant improvements over what federal Bankruptcy Judge Kathy Surratt-States ordered on May 29, and what Patriot implemented on July 1.

Immigrant construction workers in Austin, Texas, have a fierce advocate fighting for back pay, safety on the job and basic workplace rights. 

The Workers Defense Project, profiled by Steven Greenhouse in this weekend's New York Times Business section, is an example of a worker center that is highly successful in its campaigns. 

Read the rest of The Workers Defense Project, a Union in Spirit. 

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka sat down with USA Today's Susan Page to discuss the upcoming quadrennial AFL-CIO Convention to be held in Los Angeles in September, and how the federation is looking to make the labor movement more open and inclusive to anyone who wants to join, and creating a movement for all working people. 

Read Page's story here and watch the video of the interview after the jump. 

It's not every day a former manufacturing hub for middle-class jobs gets to reinvent itself after the factories and plants shut down and ship off. But that's exactly what's happening in Long Beach, Calif., in Los Angeles County. 

California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) ordered a board of inquiry Sunday night to investigate the contract negotiations between the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) authority and the unions representing the system’s 2,400 workers. The order averted a strike—for at least seven days—that was likely to begin this morning if negotiators were unable to reach a new contract.

The unions, Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1555 and SEIU Local 1021, told reporters that they hoped the boards’ investigation would reveal BART management’s failure to bargain in good faith and its lack of commitment to reaching a fair settlement.

Thousands and thousands of fast-food and other low-wage workers this week have walked off the job in a series of one-day strikes in cities across the country. They are demanding a living wage, no retaliation for striking and the right to join unions. Those strikes are continuing today and likely into next week too.

After nearly a month of mediated negotiations, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) management held a news conference this week to proclaim it hadn’t budged an inch from its contract proposals that forced some 2,500 workers to strike last month. If an agreement isn’t reached soon, union officials say workers may be forced to hit the picket lines Monday morning.

Yesterday, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Shuler, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker and Reps. Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.) and Donna Edwards (D-Md.) led an online discussion on how we can make our movement all it can be for working women, as the AFL-CIO continues its crucial conversation about the future of working people and of unions.

See what people said about working women here and check out some highlights of the conversation after the jump.