International Longshoremen's Association Local 1588

The image of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 369 apprentice Sam Simms climbing to the top of an electrical pole, as a cloud-breaking sun provides a ragged pink halo above, was the top vote-getter in the 2009 IBEW Photo Contest.

Nearly 4,000 online votes were cast for the 15 finalists—out of more than 300 submissions.

The first place winner—shot with an iPhone by Danny Doss of IBEW Local 317 in Huntington, W.Va.—captures the Louisville, Ky., apprentice as he is earning his Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) wood pole certification. Says Doss, who trains new workers:

“I was in the right place at the right time. I never expected to win.”

Dave Gable of IBEW Local 160 in Minneapolis nabbed second place with his colorful shot of windmills at sunrise on the Minnesota-South Dakota border. Voters awarded third place to Vacaville, Calif., Local 1245 member Don Porter for his photo of the Fort Churchill power plant in Mason Valley, Nev., at sunset.

Tyron Daum of IBEW Local 47 in Diamond Bar, Calif., won honorable mention for a photo of four workers balanced atop two power poles directing a helicopter delivery of a large crossbeam. The other honorable mention went to Jonathan Pytka of IBEW Local 532 in Billings, Mont., for his shot of members ascending a 150-foot wind turbine.

Click here to see all the winners and here for all the 15 finalists.

One year ago today, working people celebrated a milestone in the battle for pay equity when the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was signed into law.

The law corrected the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that Ledbetter, a 20-year employee of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., had sued too late when she discovered her pay was far below that of men doing similar work. President Obama signed the bill into law Jan. 29, 2009.

In observance of the anniversary, Ledbetter, writing on Alternet, said there is still work to do:

We need to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act. This bill gives teeth to the protections against pay discrimination. And women, who are still shortchanged in the workplace, deserve just that. The bill would empower women to negotiate for equal pay, create stronger incentives for employers to follow the law, and strengthen federal outreach and enforcement efforts. It would also strengthen penalties for equal pay violations.

In his State of the Union address this week, Obama promised to gain pay equity for working women.

In a video (above) with Ledbetter, House Education and Labor Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.) said that by passing the Ledbetter Act,

Congress was willing to make this affirmation of a fundamental and basic statement [that] you don’t get to discriminate against people in their pay, in their work based on these arbitrary standards of gender, race, ethnicity.  

In a statement, AFT President Randi Weingarten praised Ledbetter:

The AFT has always fought for fair pay, especially for many members who work in education and healthcare—jobs traditionally held by women and, therefore, historically underpaid. We commend Lilly Ledbetter for her unfaltering commitment to fairness and equality for all workers.

In this cross-post from the Campaign for America’s Future, Bill Scher explains the need for a real jobs bill to keep the economy growing.

Today’s estimate of 5.7 percent annual rate of growth in the Gross Domestic Product for the last quarter of 2009 sure beats a kick in the teeth. And if we sustain this rate of growth, we will have a robust recovery and come near full employment.

But we won’t sustain this growth unless Congress acts and passes a real jobs bill.

As economist Paul Krugman notes in the New York Times, today’s number may end up being just a “blip.” The economic consensus is that much of today’s growth number is an “inventory bounce” in which “businesses that were emptying their warehouses a year ago are now buying enough goods to keep stockpiles steady.”

Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research concludes:

There is no reason to believe that this will presage a burst of hiring.

The stimulus continues to mitigate the effects of the recession and unquestionably helped avert a Great Depression. But it’s not large enough or comprehensive enough in scope to fully solve the jobs crisis.

The White House acknowledges this, in a blog post from economic adviser Christina Romer:

There will surely be bumps in the road ahead, and we will need to continue to take responsible actions to ensure that the recovery is as smooth and robust as possible.

And the president himself emphasized that the $154 billion that passed the House last month, which he urged the Senate to pass, still will not be enough:

But what has been the Senate response? To prepare a jobs bill that is smaller than the House bill. That’s inane.

We at Campaign for America’s Future have launched a grassroots effort to press the Senate to both pass the House jobs bill and embark on a comprehensive long-term jobs strategy, including these key goals:

• Rebuild America’s schools, roads and energy systems.
• Close state budget gaps to prevent mass layoffs of teachers, police and firefighters. And direct public sector hiring to expand services that strengthen our communities.
• Use our taxpayer dollars to “Buy American” and revitalize our manufacturing industry.

The solution is big because the problem is big. The stimulus wasn’t big enough to stop all job losses from the recession, but it was big enough to lead us to this point where we can be thankful for a strong GDP growth number.

Senators: if you like looking at GDP numbers as big as this, I suggest you get to work on a bigger jobs bill.

You can help by clicking here and telling your senators: “We need action on jobs NOW!”

County workers, professional employees, bakery workers, airborne pilots and “ghost” pilots and sheriff’s deputies are among the latest workers to choose a voice at work with AFL-CIO unions.

In Utah, more than 400 Salt Lake County workers won a union voice with AFSCME Local 1004. The 408 county employees—skilled trades, maintenance and service workers—could vote for union representation only after AFSCME fought and won passage of a county collective bargaining ordinance last year.

John Farrer, a Highway Department worker, says:

This is definitely a positive thing for workers, and that’s why they voted it in. With all that’s happened, the wage cuts, benefits going down and insurance going up, we need a strong union voice to represent the interests of working families.

To help ensure that workers continue to have an opportunity to win union representation, eight college students and recent graduates just completed AFSCME’s Alternative Union Break organizing training. Read more about the unique program here.

Meanwhile in San Jose, Calif., the 410 senior analysts and program managers in the City Association of Management Personnel (CAMP) voted to affiliate with Professional and Technical Employees (IFPTE) Local 21.

IFPTE Local 21 represents more than 6,000 professional and technical government workers in the San Francisco Bay Area. Says Gay Gale, president of CAMP: “We look forward to developing a great working relationship with Local 21 in San Jose and IFPTE as a whole.”

In other organizing news:

• Workers in the U.S. Forest Service Human Resources Management Department in Albuquerque, N.M., voted to join the National Federation of Federal Employees-IAM (NFFE-IAM). The 385 employees began their organizing campaign in early 2008.
• Also, a group of Remote Pilot Operators, known as “Ghost Pilots,” voted to join the Machinists (IAM). The “Ghost Pilots” are part of the FAA’s training function at the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City. They simulate pilots’ actions for air traffic control trainees by receiving voice commands from students and then via computer, simulate pilot actions and give voice responses.
• Pilots at North American Airlines voted overwhelmingly for Air Line Pilots (ALPA) representation. The 181 pilots fly Boeing 757 and 767 aircraft for passenger, military and cargo operations around the world.
• Road deputies in the St. Lucie County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office voted to join the International Union of Police Associations (IUPA). The 155 deputies join Port St. Lucie police and civilian employees as IUPA members.
• In Alaska, 92 AT&T Mobility retail sales representatives who work across the state have joined Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 7803 through majority signup. Under an agreement between AT&T and CWA, the company will remain neutral and will recognize the union once a majority of employees sign up.
• In Union City, Calif., 75 workers at the Caravan Baking Co. voted to join Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) Local 24. The new union members work in production, wrapping, shipping and receiving, maintenance and sanitation departments. Meanwhile, office workers at Bimbo Baking USA in Sacramento joined BCTGM Local 85.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is tonight’s featured guest on “Bill Moyers Journal” on PBS. In an in-depth 30-minute interview, Trumka will outline steps to restore the nation’s economy, create jobs and rebuild the middle class.

He will talk about the AFL-CIO’s role in creating a broad movement of Americans to demand jobs and an economy that works for families on Main Street and why bankers and brokers on Wall Street must be held accountable with strong new financial reform rules.

Trumka will discuss why health care reform must pass and what it must include. He will explain why it’s time to restore the freedom of workers to form unions and bargain for a better life.

Visit PBS to find the TV schedule for the time and channel in your area.

Trumka also will appear on CNN’s “State of the Union with John King” Sunday at 12:40 p.m. EST to discuss jobs, the economy, health care and deliver labor’s response to President Obama’s State of the Union address.

A new report presents clear evidence that including Buy America provisions in last year’s stimulus package has created jobs and makes the case that the rules should be strengthened in jobs legislation being considered on Capitol Hill.  

The 17-page report, “Buy America Works,” by the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), highlights success stories showing how Buy America provisions have benefited U.S. companies. Like United Streetcar in Oregon, that is manufacturing the first U.S.-made streetcars in 60 years and supporting a supply chain across the nation. Or Arcelor Mittal in Pennsylvania, that is building rail tracks for southeastern Pennsylvania.

Earlier this week, AAM field staff converged on Capitol Hill to urge their lawmakers to maintain and enhance Buy America requirements in jobs legislation now before the Senate, where some Republicans want to weaken the rules.

Says AAM Executive Director Scott Paul:

It would be foolish to dilute or eliminate Buy America rules at such a critical time for our workers and economy. The wind farms, bridges, and new schools of America should be made in America. We urge Congress to incorporate strong Buy America rules to ensure that tax dollars are invested in communities all over our nation.

Polls show 86 percent of Americans support requirements for American-made materials in all federally funded infrastructure investment. More than 500 local, state and municipal governments have passed “Buy America” measures.

Writing on Daily Kos, The Electrical Worker points out that if the Senate passes the jobs legislation with strong Buy America provisions, one of the beneficiaries could be members of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 56 in Erie, Pa., who perform electrical maintenance and large-scale projects in the 100 year-old locomotive manufacturing plant owned by GE Transportation.

The bill includes $800 million for modernizing Amtrak’s fleet. The House jobs bill strengthens “Buy American” language which could help GE to land work in the factory which cut 1,500 jobs last September.

The United States also should have its own “Buy America” program for federal procurements, which represent 20 percent of our nation’s gross domestic product. Writing in a special report by The American Prospect magazine on American manufacturing, the authors point out that the United States is the only nation among the G-20 not to have a significant “buy domestic” procurement program:

…yet no single economic stimulus initiative would do more to resuscitate U.S. employment and reduce our massive trade deficit. In May, China, which is by far the single largest importer of goods to the U.S., confirmed its policy of 100 percent domestic procurement. We should call our new comparable requirement the “U.S. Domestic Investment Act.”

Check out this special edition, “Made In America: Reviving American Manufacturing (before it’s too late),” here. It examines the causes of the decline in manufacturing and how we can rebuild our economy by investing in making products in America. It also includes key insights from United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard and Machinists President Tom Buffenbarger and economists Robert Kuttner and Jeff Faux.

Dr. Jody Heymann is a professor in the Faculties of Medicine and Arts at McGill University, where she is founding director of the Institute for Health and Social Policy and founding chair of the Project on Global Working Families. She also is an adjunct associate professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Heymann has authored and edited more than 150 publications, including Raising the Global Floor and Forgotten Families. She has led the development of a unique graduate and undergraduate multidisciplinary training program that bridges research and policy development with students gaining experience in 18 countries. Also, check out the interactive world legal rights database created by Dr. Heymann and her team.

When it comes to ensuring working families have the bread-and-butter basics, the United States is an outlier, there’s no doubt. For example:

• 177 nations guarantee paid leave for new mothers; the U.S. does not.
• 74 nations guarantee paid leave for new fathers; the U.S. does not.
• 132 nations guarantee breastfeeding breaks at work; the U.S. does not.
• 163 nations guarantee paid sick leave; the U.S. does not.
• 48 nations guarantee paid time off to care for children’s health; the U.S. does not.
• 41 nations provide leave that can be used for child education needs; the U.S. does not.
• 33 nations provide paid leave to care for adult family members; the U.S. does not.

The cost to Americans is profound.

• Every year Americans lose income and homes when they get sick with serious illnesses.
• Restaurant workers, health care providers and co-workers spread disease when they go to work with infectious diseases.
• Infants fall sick at 1.5 to 5 times the rate when they are not breastfed—by mothers who have little choice.

For decades, we’ve been hearing none of these issues can be addressed because of the economic cost. The argument has been that if mothers and fathers could afford to care for their newborn children, we’d have fewer jobs; America would be less competitive; it would cost too much. If people with flu stayed home when they were sick, if Americans with cancer didn’t fear losing their job and home when they got sick, it’d cost too much for our country. Well, it turns out not to be true. Some 57 million Americans do not get paid leave, or even sometimes unpaid leave, to stay home sick or to care for sick relatives.

In Raising the Global Floor, a book that reports on 10 years of research carried out at Harvard and McGill, Alison Earle and I report the findings of the largest global study to look at working conditions, how they affect individual men and women and national economies in 190 of the world’s 192 countries.

Can the United States afford to improve working conditions?

• Globally, none of the protections described above are linked with lower levels of economic competitiveness or employment.
• Of the world’s 15 most competitive countries, 14 provide paid sick leave, 13 guarantee paid leave for new mothers, 12 provide paid leave for new fathers, 11 provide paid leave to care for children’s health needs, eight provide paid leave to care for adult family members and seven guarantee breastfeeding breaks.
• The majority of the 13 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries with consistently low unemployment rates provide paid leave for new mothers (12), paid sick leave (11), breastfeeding breaks (9), paid leave for new fathers (9) and paid leave to care for children’s health needs (8).

We can afford the change. What we can’t afford is the status quo.

In his State of the Union address last night, President Obama made jobs the top priority of his administration, and today you can act to let Congress know jobs are the top priority of working people, as well.

Obama praised the House for passing a jobs bill last month and urged the Senate to do the same. You can tell the Senate we need action on jobs NOW! The Campaign for America’s Future is urging everyone who needs a job or who has a friend or relative suffering in this Great Recession to send a message to their senators to follow the House’s lead and pass the jobs bill without cutting or weakening it. To send a message, click here.

The bill is just a first step toward putting America back to work. The AFL-CIO has proposed a five-point plan to create jobs immediately and ease the economic hardships on Main Street’s working families.

Last night in his State of the Union message, President Obama called on Congress to pass a jobs bill to help put millions of Americans back to work. But the U.S. Congress is not the only lawmaking body that can fuel job creation. State legislatures have important roles to play. 

The AFL -CIO has developed a State Jobs Agenda that union and community allies and working family lawmakers can use as a guideline in developing legislation and policies to protect and create jobs, address budget issues and protect the safety net. 

The agenda offers dozens of innovative and effective ways to develop job-centric laws and policy that put working families first.

Following are just a few examples.

Restoring Jobs and Holding Corporations Accountable 

Some states continue to hand out taxpayer dollars to companies in economic development subsidies but don’t hold the companies accountable for creating the promised jobs or stronger tax bases. Some firms have even used state funds for investments in other states or countries. 

Activists and lawmakers can hold corporations accountable in several legislative or regulatory ways such as: 

• Attaching job quality standards to subsidies and contracts;
• Establishing clawbacks that allow states (and localities) to get their money back from subsidized corporations if they fail to create the number and quality of jobs promised; and
• Passing legislation to ensure that state tax dollars are used to create in-state jobs by prohibiting states from contracting with or providing economic development assistance to companies that ship the work offshore.  

The State Jobs Agenda also examines methods to:

• Establish contracting-out standards to ensure that when states contract out services, the contracts go to high quality, law-abiding companies with good workplace practices;
• Create jobs by investing in infrastructure repair and green Jobs development;
• Monitor how investment/stimulus funds are spent; and
• Ensure that U.S. firms and workers have the opportunity to bid on work before a firm with a waiver to Buy American rules is awarded the contract.  

Repairing the Safety Net  

Unemployment insurance (UI) benefits are the first line of economic defense for jobless workers. But many states have yet to qualify for some $7 billion in federal funding to modernize their UI systems and provide the expanded and improved benefits required to receive the federal funds. Others are facing funding problems. To address these issues, state legislative activists can:

• Expand UI eligibility by actions such as covering part-time workers, including most recent earnings in determining eligibility, providing additional weeks of benefits to laid off workers pursuing job training or other improvements.
• Increase the taxable wage base on which employers must pay UI taxes from the federal minimum of the first $7,000 in income and index to inflation. 

Shoring up State Budgets 

States are facing a $350 billion budget gap now and in the next fiscal year, in addition to the massive shortfalls from FY 2009. Already, states have cut vital services—and the jobs lost because of the budget cuts are in both the public and private sectors.  If states balance their budgets entirely with spending cuts, it could cost the economy 900,000 jobs. Instead, states can use a variety of measures, including use of reserve funds, revenue raisers and appropriate spending cuts. 

For example, Oregon voters this week approved two measures to raise income taxes on the state’s wealthiest earners and increase the $10 minimum annual corporate tax—that hadn’t been changed since 1931—to $150 a year. That extra income will be used to pay for education, health care, public safety and other vital services. 

Other solutions include strengthening tax enforcement programs, eliminating tax loopholes that let corporations take taxable profits out of state and tightening rules to prevent employers from avoiding payroll taxes by misclassifying workers as independent contractors instead of employees.  

The 2010 AFL-CIO State Jobs Agenda also provides steps to ensure that green jobs created by state funding and grants are good jobs and the corporations who receive grants for green jobs and environmental services are held accountable.  

In addition, the state jobs blueprint outlines several initiatives states can take to provide the type of education and training needed to prepare current and jobless workers, along with students, for the 21st century.  

For more information or a complete copy of the AFL-CIO State Jobs Agenda contact: 

Christine Silvia-DeGennaro, state legislative issues coordinator, AFL-CIO Government Affairs Department, at 202-637-5177 or csilvia@aflcio.org.

If the Federal Reserve had done its job, the worst economic downturn since the Depression of the 1930s would not have occurred. Rather than heeding warnings that the sharp upturn in the housing market was a bubble that inevitably would bust, economists at the Fed ignored all the warning signs, says Dean Baker in a Point of View (POV) guest column at the AFL-CIO website.

Baker is co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) and author of several books and the popular blog Beat the Press. He will speak tonight about his new book, False Profits: Recovering from the Bubble Economy, at Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C., at 6:30 p.m. For more information, call 202-387-7638.  

Baker says there was more behind the near-collapse than greed and incredible economic mismanagement.

Wall Street greed has received considerable attention—but the failure of those in policy-making positions is still not fully appreciated.

Many economists pointed out as early as 2002 that the huge run-up in housing prices did not make sense given the low demand for new homes and an increase in supply. The only plausible explanation was a financing bubble, Baker said. But Fed officials and economists kept insisting everything was fine. We all know how wrong they were, but they are not being held accountable. Here’s Baker:

Remarkably, the economists at the Fed and the others responsible for this disastrous policy are suffering no consequences. Unlike the school bus driver who drunkenly crashes his bus or the restaurant worker who leaves the stove on and burns down the restaurant, the economists who burn down the economy get to keep their jobs. In fact, Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board who was at the center of economic policymaking since 2002, seems likely to be approved for a second term.

This shows how badly the nation needs to change the course of politics in this country, Baker adds.

It was bad enough that the Wall Street banksters were allowed to run wild for a decade and bring the economy to the brink of a Great Depression. However, it is truly amazing that the people who failed to rein them in get to keep their jobs.  We have some real work ahead of us.

 You can read Baker’s POV column, “The Great Recession Didn’t Have to Happen,” here.

Today in Tampa, Fla., President Obama is announcing $8 billion in high-speed rail grants that will save or create tens of thousands of jobs in areas like track-laying, manufacturing, planning and engineering. 

Edward Wytkind, president of the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department (TTD), says the commitment to develop high-speed rail “couldn’t come at a better time.”

Investing in America’s passenger transportation systems and infrastructure not only builds a lasting contribution to future generations of travelers, it puts people to work at a time when so many Americans are jobless.

In his State of the Union message last night, Obama pointed to rebuilding the nation’s transportation infrastructure as a vital component of a blueprint to create jobs and boost the overall economy.

We can put Americans to work today building the infrastructure of tomorrow. From the first railroads to the Interstate Highway System, our nation has always been built to compete. There’s no reason Europe or China should have the fastest trains or the new factories that manufacture clean-energy products….There are projects like that all across this country that will create jobs and help move our nation’s goods, services and information. 

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes awards of $2.25 billion for California, $1.25 billion for Florida and $2.6 billion for 24 projects in the Midwest, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. A total of 31 states and the District of Columbia will receive high-speed rail grants, including money for planning and development for future rail lines. Those projects, says Wytkind, 

will not only create transportation and construction jobs, but it will also boost American manufacturing jobs if our government vigorously enforces domestic content requirements. This new investment in passenger rail presents a historic opportunity for U.S. manufacturing to seize and flourish.

He also urged lawmakers on Capitol Hill to craft and pass a jobs bill that invests in aviation, mass transit, highway, and passenger and freight rail, maritime and port infrastructure.

Oregon voters, faced with a $727 million budget deficit that threatened severe cuts in education, health care, public safety and senior services, voted Tuesday for two “fair share” measures that raise taxes on the state’s wealthiest families and boost a minimum tax on businesses that had been set at just $10 since 1931.

Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain says the victory on both these measures “sends a strong message on how we value education and other vital working family services.”

Oregon unions, community allies and progressive groups led the fight against the deep-pocketed corporate community that preached economic doom if the tax measures passed. 

Both measures won handily—around 54 percent to 46 percent for each—at a time when right-wing pundits and anti-tax zealots claim voters are in revolt over taxes and government programs. The Ballot Initiative Strategy Center (BICS) says the vote is a “solid rejection of anti tax and anti-government activists”

trying to protect their narrow self interests at the expense of real solutions that will protect vital services, save jobs, and support the state economy.

The Oregon victory signals once again that these special interests remain out of sync with moderates and independents. Americans are looking for real solutions, not gimmicks and nay-saying, to solve real problems.

Measure 66 raises taxes on households with taxable income above $250,000, and Measure 67 increases the 79-year-old $10 a year minimum tax on businesses to $150. 

Katie Connolly on Newsweek’s The Gaggle blog writes: 

It’s extraordinarily refreshing news at a time when Americans appear to want government to solve major economic problems without spending any money, let alone asking the richest among us to lend a hand.

Oregon House Speaker Dave Hunt (D) puts it this way:

It means the February session won’t be focused on cutting hundreds of millions of dollars from schools, public safety and health care.

Obama’s call tonight to make jobs his No. 1 priority in his State of the Union message is the right message, says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. As Obama said tonight:

Jobs must be our number one focus in 2010, and that is why I am calling for a new jobs bill tonight.

Obama called for small business tax breaks to encourage hiring and infrastructure spending. He urged passage of tax incentives for larger business to keep and create jobs in the United States, and an end to tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. He also proposed taking $30 billion of the money Wall Street banks have repaid and use it to help community banks give small businesses the credit they need to stay afloat—a proposal similar to one in our AFL-CIO jobs initiative.

As Trumka said:

We must act on a scale that will be meaningful: We need more than 10 million jobs just to get out of the hole we’re in. We want health care fixed. We want our leaders to break the stranglehold of Wall Street and the big banks and make them pay to repair the economic damage they created.

Obama praised the House for passing a jobs bill last month and urged the Senate to do the same. And as lawmakers on Capitol Hill have slowed reform of health care, Obama urged Congress not to walk away from reform.

He also rightly pointed to how the steps his administration has taken have alleviated the economic suffering of working people. Steps that included the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which has ensured that 2 million Americans are working right now who would otherwise be unemployed. The act is on track to add another one and a half million jobs to this total by the end of the year. All this was done while cutting taxes for working Americans, Obama said.

We cut taxes for 95% of working families. We cut taxes for small businesses. We cut taxes for first-time homebuyers. We cut taxes for parents trying to care for their children. We cut taxes for 8 million Americans paying for college.

Saying that America’s workers are frustrated and angry, Trumka said, “the President was right to call out Republicans for obstructing change and putting politics ahead of progress.”

Now it’s time for all of us to get busy and work together to bring the big changes that are essential—starting with enacting a jobs bill that is big enough to create jobs for the millions of people who want to work and can’t find jobs. The time for small change is long gone. We were pleased to see that the President embraced two of the job creation proposals we have made—investing in infrastructure and helping small businesses get credit through TARP funds.

The AFL-CIO’s five-point plan to create jobs immediately would begin to put people back to work and ease the economic hardships on Main Street’s working families who, unlike Wall Street bankers and brokers, have borne the brunt of the economy’s meltdown. The plan, which Trumka says will soon be expanded, includes:

• Extending unemployment insurance for the long-term jobless (due to run out next month) along with expanding food stamp assistance, and health care benefits (COBRA) for unemployed workers and their families through COBRA.
• Rebuilding the nation’s crumbling infrastructure.
• Increasing aid to state and local governments to maintain vital services and jobs.
• Funding jobs in neglected communities.
• Using left over bank bailout funds to get credit moving to small Main Street businesses.

Trumka also says the AFL-CIO is gearing up for a nationwide jobs campaign with allies and communities. While we “will not agree with every aspect of every proposal,” he says, we will

continue to be an independent voice for middle class Americans and fight for the change working families need—and we are ready to do more. This is the time for a broad movement of Americans demanding jobs and an economy that works for all, and we’re ready to put our energy and leadership into building that movement—taking the fight to the doorstep of the banks that are exploiting struggling homeowners, of corporations that are running away from communities and of lawmakers who choose to back them up.

The news is out: The Wall Street bankers we bailed out are giving themselves 2009 cash bonuses of a half million dollars on average—not including stocks. Compare that with the $32,390 annual median wage for regular workers, and you find a formula for outrage.

The people who tanked our economy, took $700 billion in taxpayer money and refused to make job-creating loans are getting rewards that range into the millions.

Not bad for a year in which Main Street lost 4 million jobs.

No wonder people are mad.

When Wall Street needs help, elected leaders respond with bold and swift action. When Main Street cries for help, we get gridlock. No health care reform, no financial reform, no labor law reform, and a slow, timid effort on job creation.

The anger out there is well-deserved. Workers are hurting. We haven’t seen so much militant sentiment demanding job creation and basic fairness since hundreds of thousands of people came to Washington for the March for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.

The Senate election in Massachusetts last week signaled a working class revolt—against business as usual and against politics as usual.

An AFL-CIO poll taken election night showed just how fed up people are— they want results, and aren’t seeing any.

Four out of five voters said their most important issue was strengthening the economy and creating more jobs. Controlling health care costs was next on their list, with 54 percent citing that as the main determinant of their vote.

And they said Democrats have not overreached on jobs, the economy and health care—they have under-reached.

Forty-seven percent said their concern about Democrats is that they haven’t succeeded in making needed change, while only 32 percent said they made too many changes too quickly. Even voters for Scott Brown were more concerned about a lack of change (50 percent) than about making too many changes too quickly (43 percent).

Contrary to what we’re hearing from the corporate media, the Massachusetts election wasn’t a referendum on health care reform (Brown actually lost among the 59 percent of voters who picked health care as one of their top two priorities). But it did send a clear message that voters rejected attacks on the middle class like the proposed excise tax on health care benefits. Voters who thought their health care would be taxed voted by 64 percent for Brown, while those who did not think so voted by 54 percent to 40 percent for Coakley.

The election was no endorsement of the Republican agenda either—in fact, 58 percent of voters disapprove of the job being done by congressional Republicans.

Here’s what one grassroots union leader learned from his experience in the Massachusetts race:

A year ago, the Democrats crowed that the Republicans were “irrelevant.” Today, the Republicans think the Democrats are mortally wounded. Both are wrong. In our non-ideological party landscape, in hard times whoever strikes the best pose of wounded underdog wins. The same anger that elected Obama was hijacked to elect Scott Brown: “We want change!”

There was no outpouring for a right-wing agenda in Massachusetts. Brown only received 50,000 votes more than McCain. But Coakley received 850,000 fewer votes than Obama. The Republican base remained energized. The Democratic base and independent supporters stayed home. 

Unless elected leaders and candidates deliver on job creation and the economy, they’re going to join the growing numbers of jobless Americans.

Members of Congress from both parties need to heed the wake-up call from Massachusetts and start taxing Wall Street wealth to create millions of good jobs fast. To get elected in 2010, they’re going to have to PROVE they’ll create the jobs we need in an economy we need with the health care we need—and those who made the mess should pay the bill. Voters have heard too much talk already.

America’s union movement is leading a broad uprising of working people ready to make sure elected leaders and candidates get the message and don’t forget. Don’t just watch for us in the streets—join us.

Members of the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) are stepping up to raise money and promote awareness for the recovery effort in Haiti. You can take action now to help the Haitian survivors by clicking on the AFL-CIO Haitian Disaster Relief site here.

This week, the NFLPA is expected to announce the creation of the “ONE TEAM 4 HAITI” campaign, a partnership with the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, National Basketball Players Association, National Hockey League Players Association and Major League Baseball Players Association to focus on relief efforts in Haiti.

The “ONE TEAM 4 HAITI” campaign will promote relief efforts by airing public service announcements that feature professional athletes from all four major sports leagues.

Says NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith:

These athletes may come from different backgrounds and play different sports, but when disaster strikes, we respond as one team. The ultimate goal of this team is to do everything it can to make a true difference in the recovery efforts in Haiti.

To help those affected by the Haitian earthquake, you can text the word “TEAM” to 20222 to donate $10 to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.

Last week, the NFLPA also contributed $500,000 to the American Red Cross to help with Haiti relief.

In other actions:

• Mari Cordes, one of the dozen nurses, paramedics and emergency medical technicians who are members of the AFT-affiliated Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals (VFNHP), reports that her group is working in a large medical compound in Jimani, a border town near the Dominican Republic. She says at least 500 patients are being treated in what appears to be an old church mission. Members of the medical team work at Fletcher Allen Health Care, an alliance of the University of Vermont’s medical and nursing schools. More than 75 members of the VFNHP have volunteered to be part of the medical relief effort.
• Artist Ricardo Levins Morale, whose work depicts the lives of working people, has created an original new art print to benefit the Haiti relief effort. The  poster is sold signed. Half of the proceeds will go to Partners in Health for earthquake relief. Partners in Health is Haitian-led and provides direct assistance in Haitian communities without the costs of an administrative bureaucracy.  Click here to order the poster. 

When Royetta Sanford retired as director of the Electrical Workers (IBEW) Human Services Department, she did not stop working to improve the lives of working people. Instead, she has begun to train the next generation of union leaders.

Sanford has volunteered to share her knowledge and experience to mentor Carrie Meyers-Herron, a recipient of the Union Leaders of the Future Scholarship.

Says Sanford:

I’m mentoring because I feel it is one of the only ways we can move forward getting women and minorities in the mainstream of the labor movement.

This is a great, well-organized program with some real bright talent, a lot of people with capacity to be good leaders. I want to give back to the movement and do whatever I can to make it stronger and more diverse.

The future leaders scholarship helps active union members who are women or people of color gain skills and knowledge to move into union leadership. Providing annual rewards of up to $3,000, the scholarship program is sponsored by the Union Plus Education Foundation, an arm of Union Privilege.

Meyers-Herron, a member of AFT Local 2665 in Palatine Bridge, N.Y., and president of the Galway (N.Y.) Central School District’s teachers association, says:

It’s nice to be hooked up with a mentor who has done union work for so long. She reassures me.

Meyers-Herron, who met Sanford for the first time in September, hopes to take master’s level courses in labor relations. She will stay in contact with Sanford monthly on balancing tasks and getting her perspective on issues facing teachers in a time of tightening budgets.

Sanford is one of 12 experienced union leaders who agreed to mentor the scholarship winners.

The others are: 

• Transport Workers President James Little.
• MaryBe McMillan, secretary-treasurer of the North Carolina State AFL-CIO.
• Christine Trujillo, president, New Mexico AFT
• Sharon Cornu, executive secretary-treasurer, Alameda (Calif.) Labor Council.
• RaeLene Brown, secretary-treasurer of the Stanislaus-Tuolumne Central Labor Council in Modesto, Calif.
• Davida Russell, president, AFSCME Local 744 in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.
• Connie Cordovilla of the AFT Human Rights and Community Relations Department.
• David Carpio of the AFL-CIO Political Department.
• Mary Finger, retired vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).
• May Ying Chen, retired vice president of Workers United.
• Greg Hamblet, retired vice president of UFCW.

Since 1992, Union Plus has awarded more than $2.8 million in scholarships. This year 13 unionists representing 10 unions received more than $33,000 in scholarships.

In a recent edition of GRITtv, host Laura Flanders brings together three panelists for a talk about the economy, the labor movement and political organizing.

In one of the highlights of this episode, Thomas Frank, author of The Wrecking Crew, does a great job of explaining our broken labor laws and how they’re preventing millions of workers from exercising their basic freedom to form a union:

You’ve got to remember that one of the reasons it’s so hard to organize in the workplace is that there’s a whole industry out there that has developed to stop people from organizing. There are polls all the time asking, “Would you like to join a union,” “Would you be interested in bargaining with your boss,” that sort of thing, and mostly, people think that’s a good idea—but that doesn’t mean you get to have a union just because you want one. There’s a whole bunch of structural impediments in your way.

For one thing, it’s very easy for management to bring consultants in to try and figure out how to keep it from happening. They have compulsory meetings with staff, they do one-on-one meetings with employees, they do all these things leading up to a union election to make sure a union doesn’t win.

All very true, and it’s why we need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act—to reform our broken labor laws and give everyone the chance to bargain for a better life.

You can watch the whole conversation here.

For most of us, the world of thoroughbred horse racing begins and ends with the Triple Crown, those few weeks in the spring when the world’s best horses run in the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont stakes.

But beyond the glamour that gilds the top of the horse-racing world, there’s a dirty secret that tarnishes racing’s carefully crafted image—the fate of the run-out and worn-out horses at the bottom-rung tracks far from Churchill Downs or Pimlico.

Every year, thousands of horses are shipped across U.S. borders to slaughterhouses in Canada or Mexico, while thousands more are neglected, abused or abandoned.

There are humane alternatives. Jim Tremper, a member of the New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF), an AFT affiliate, has been running the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation’s (TRF’s) horse farm at the Wallkill Correctional Facility for the past 25 years. That work is the centerpiece of the new documentary “Homestretch,” much of it filmed at Wallkill, now available on DVD.

Tremper is a vocational instructor at Wallkill, where he says the horse farm serves a dual purpose. First, it’s a place where horses can rest and get rehabilitated after often being severely abused. Second, the foundation’s work helps the inmates who feed, exercise, treat and train the horses to learn responsibility and redevelop a sense of trust. The goal for both inmate and horse is to find a new life on the outside.

Our goal is to help the inmates become better citizens upon their release and provide much needed care to the retired thoroughbreds.

In the latest issue of the PEF Communicator, he says he hopes the documentary will reach “the right audience.”

The people who don’t know what is going on when a race horse is finished with its career. This film could change the mindset and show what can be done with these animals when they can no longer race. They still have the power to rehabilitate.

The film chronicles the pairing of the inmates and rescued, end-of-career race horses as they come together to care for and save each other, says the filmmaker, Sheri Bylander. Tremper, says Bylander

allowed me to become an insider in a way that’s very necessary for a documentary. From the minute I set foot on the farm, his compassion for the inmates and horses become clear.

The goal of “Homestretch” is to raise the public’s awareness of abuse and cruelty that many horses face at the finish line of their careers. Tremper says the film already has had an immediate impact on the inmates working with the horses at Wallkill.

The loved the attention. They loved being in the spotlight. They developed a deeper meaning in the work they do with the horses. The filming helped them realize their work is necessary, important and special.

Click here for more information on the film or to purchase a DVD of “Homestretch.”

John Sferazo, a retired member of Ironworkers Local 361 from Brooklyn, N.Y., was one of the first responders after the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001. Like many of the firefighters, police officers, reservists and other union members who worked in the devastation of the bombed out World Trade Centers, Sferazo suffered psychological and physical damage, including the loss of more than one-third of his breathing capacity.

But despite his adversity, Sferazo is actively working to build a top-rated wildlife and nature program in Maine, which he is opening for hunting to veterans and first responders with disabilities.

In 2000, Sferazo, a member of the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance, purchased a parcel of land in Maine known as Owen’s Marsh. A former asphalt plant, the site had been reclaimed, including the construction of a dam, which created a deep-water marsh. Five weeks after Sferazo purchased the property, the dam breached, releasing a 73-acre wall of water.

“I can’t explain the amount of waterfowl—ducks, herons, egrets—utilizing this body of water,” Sferazo told the Ironworker magazine.

 So the breech ripped my heart out. The reason I purchased the property went down the highway, more or less.

Sferazo began again to reclaim the property. With help from friends and colleagues, Sferazo, who holds an environmental sciences degree, planted organic matter to replace the washed-away topsoil. Then he added flora, wintergreens and other winter food sources for deer and other browsers like moose and the snowshoe rabbit.

He even took advantage of nuisance beavers, allowing the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to release them on his property. 

He tells the magazine:

I wanted these little convicts on my property because they’re going to do their job—build dams. Dams contain a body of water, which provides habitat for birds, moose, and other animals.

In conjunction with the Pine Grove Program, which helps heroes who have survived man-made or natural disasters through nature therapy, Sferazo opened his property to veterans and first responders with disabilities.

He says:

It gives them the edge they need because of their disability, such as being confined to a wheelchair.

What we’re doing through Pine Grove is giving these people the opportunity to let the pressure valve go off through time spent outdoors.

So you thanked Aunt Tillie for the psychedelic tie and didn’t roll your eyes when you opened the fuzzy Batman slippers with blinking lights from your kids.

But if you cringe at the thought of day-after Christmas, door-buster crowds at the big-box stores and malls, you can flesh out your gift stash or get ahead of the birthdays on your gift list at the AFL-CIO The Union Shop Online.TM

It’s still winter out there and there is a wide range of warm weather gear, sweatshirts, fleece jackets and more. If you want to keep you noggin warm, there’s a nifty Working America knit ski cap.

For the kids—don’t hold the slippers against them—check out the picture book, Kid Blink Beats the World, by Don Brown. In the summer of 1899, hundreds of newsboys and girls who sold Randolph Hearst’s The Journal and Joseph Pulitzer’s The World on New York City streets went on strike over a penny. Led by Kid Blink and others, they refused to sell the papers, staged rallies and finally brought the newspapers to the negotiating table. Click here for more kids’ stuff.

If you’re looking for a collectors’ item, The Union Shop OnlineTM still has a limited supply of the union-made-in-the-USA version of Scrabble. These games were made before the company moved the plants to China.

You can show your patriotism and solidarity with a 2-by-3 foot, union-made, extra-strength, cotton-weave American flag.

Check out the union activist posters, buttons and bumper stickers along with a wide variety of music and movies with activist or union themes and connections,

Don’t forget The Union Shop Online’sTM gift card, available in amounts from $5 to $100.

And if you haven’t gotten enough of the holidays, get a jump on next year’s holiday season with holiday cards for Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.