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The decision to wind down DACA has strengthened the resolve of DREAMers, including one in Oregon, who called the attorney general's announcement 'vague.'
Working on Labor Day to Recover from Harvey
Texas AFL-CIO
Watching helplessly as flood waters rose was not an option for Brandon Parker. This Texas refinery worker and member of the United Steelworkers (USW) union has a jacked-up Suburban and a friend with a boat. There was no way he was going to let family members, neighbors or strangers drown.
Like Brandon, many union members couldn’t sit still through the storm. One drove her high-riding pickup truck two hours to find baby formula for co-workers rescued from their roof with a newborn. Another used his pickup truck to rescue people whose cars got caught in fast-moving water.
These are among the many workers across Texas and across the United States whose sense of community drove them to respond to the crisis created by Hurricane Harvey.
Brandon’s most harrowing rescues occurred on Sunday, Aug. 27, when he joined the citizens armada, the flotilla of boats owned by civilians who drafted themselves to serve as first responders when the catastrophic size of the emergency overwhelmed professionals.
The crew on Brandon’s boat was all union. His longtime...
The end of the Deferred Action for Child Arrivals, or DACA, initiative is sure to be intensely debated across the country.
Winds wreaked havoc on wildfires that were pushing the flames toward manmade and natural icons in and around Glacier and Yosemite national parks Monday.
Winds wreaked havoc on wildfires that were pushing the flames toward manmade and natural icons in and around Glacier and Yosemite national parks Monday.
Failure to Invest in Public Transportation Hurts Communities Across the Country
The New York Times recently profiled the story—or the commute, rather—of Sheila James, a 61-year-old federal office worker who lives in Stockton, California, but works 80 miles away in San Francisco. She rises at 2 a.m. so she can catch a bus and two trains to get her job as a public health adviser. Her total commuting time? Three hours—each way.
This intense commute isn’t by choice. Sheila is part of a growing community of working-class men and women known as "extreme commuters" who, because of skyrocketing real estate prices and a lack of affordable housing, are forced to travel more than 90 minutes one way each day to get their jobs. For Sheila, and millions of Americans like her, a combination of public transit and commuter options aren’t just alternatives to the office carpool—they are lifelines to economic stability.
But strains placed on state and local budgets mean these vital services are under threat. During the Great Recession, agencies were forced to severely cut back by slashing routes and jobs while raising fares, and many of those cuts have...
George Clooney, Jamie Foxx, Reese Witherspoon and others will also participate with taped or live messages.
George Clooney, Jamie Foxx, Reese Witherspoon and others will also participate with taped or live messages.
Celebrating the Accomplishments of Working People
Wisconsin AFL-CIO
Across the country, Americans took time on Labor Day to celebrate working people and our accomplishments.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka discussed Labor Day's importance in an essay for Time magazine:
Labor Day is an important opportunity to recognize and honor the achievements of working people. It was meant to be a day of leisure, especially for workers and working families; it was also meant to be a day to remember the power and purpose of working people united in unions.
The tension between work and time off has always been a concern of the American labor movement. Work may be one of our core values, but it has a purpose, which is to allow us to live good lives, provide for ourselves and our families and, yes, to earn some time off to enjoy the fruits of our labor.
Today, work and time off are badly out of balance, and Labor Day is a case in point. For too many people, especially low-wage workers, this day to celebrate working people is just another workday in a relentless slog.
Time off shouldn’t be impossible. Yet for...
The federal government's medical response to Hurricane Harvey has not been bad. Disaster experts say years of preparation under the Obama administration helped.
