AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will make a speech today in Washington where he will call for an independent labor movement that protects the interests of the working class and does not look out for one party or the other. In a speech at the National Press Club, the head of the nation’s largest labor federation [...]

Labor unions are not happy with the “action plan” that is seen as a precursor to a free trade agreement with Colombia. Scores of labor organizers have been attacked and even killed in Colombia over the past several years. And the AFL-CIO and other unions simply find the deal insufficient. “The action plan does not [...]

Scott Walker held to his threat of issuing layoff notices to public employees because of the passing of a deadline for the budget reapir bill. The deadline, which concerns a $165 million refinancing scheme that Walker claims needs time to accomplish, seems bogus to many financial experts who I’ve consulted about this. Basically, bond restructuring [...]

While it’s shocking how no attention was paid to housing in Peter Baker’s takeout on the Obama Administration and jobs, it’s perhaps more shocking how small a role jobs actually play in the piece. Obama is described as frustrated, ticked that there are no real ideas at his disposal to deal with the still-extant jobs [...]

President Obama is holding a press conference in moments, amid signs that his deal with Republicans on the Bush tax cuts is falling apart. Joe Biden visited the Hill to try and save the policy, but Democrats and allies from across the political spectrum are opposed. Mary Landrieu, of all people, called the deal “almost [...]

I’m trying to decompress from the Senate Banking Committee hearing on foreclosure fraud, so before I go, let’s look at the latest on the Bush tax cuts. Today, Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO floated that Democrats could hold a vote just on extending the tax cuts for the middle class. AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka told [...]

The reviews are rolling in for the spending cut-heavy Bowles-Simpson recommendations. And nobody’s about to throw them a party. Here’s AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka: The chairmen of the Deficit Commission just told working Americans to ‘Drop Dead.’ Especially in these tough economic times, it is unconscionable to be proposing cuts to the critical economic lifelines [...]

Tim Geithner downplayed expectations yesterday of a trade war with China, after the House passed a bill that would force the imposition of duties on Chinese imports if they continued to manipulate their currency. “We’re not going to have a trade war,” Geithner said in remarks to a Washington conference yesterday hosted by The Atlantic [...]

Next Friday Saturday, on 10.2.10, a large and diverse coalition of over 200 faith, labor, youth, student and civil rights organizations will mass in Washington and cities all over the country for One Nation Working Together. Organizers expect participants in the six figures to “demand the change we voted for” and build a social movement [...]

In addition to the demise of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and the broader changes in the defense authorization bill (including increases in military pay, no permanent military bases in Afghanistan, and more), the DREAM Act failed to get a chance to be offered as an amendment to the bill. When Mitch McConnell tried to offer [...]

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka took issue with the suggestion that the labor movement failed in punishing Democrats who voted against the health care law through primary challenges in 2010. Speaking about the One Nation Coming Together rally scheduled for Washington DC and 300 satellite sites around the country on October 2, Trumka disputed the notion [...]