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When the heads of the nation’s insurance companies come to Washington, D.C., next week to plot strategies for killing real health care reform, they’ll be greeted by thousands of union members, community, health care and religious activists with one message: Stop. We’re sick of the obscene high rates and insurance company abuses. We want health care reform now. Read More>>

The jobless rate remained at 9.7 percent, with 36,000 jobs lost in February, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports today. The biggest hit came in construction, where employment fell by 64,000. Manufacturing remained steady but 18,000 jobs were lost in the information industry. Temporary help services added 48,000 jobs. Read More>>

Linda Chavez-Thompson, executive vice president emerita of the AFL-CIO, won the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor of Texas in the March 2 primary.

Chavez-Thompson defeated two candidates, including former Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, to clinch the nomination without the need for a runoff election. In unofficial results, Chavez-Thompson had slightly above 53 percent in the three-candidate field.

Chavez-Thompson faces Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, a two-term incumbent with vast personal financial resources, in the November election.

Democrats expect Chavez-Thompson's candidacy to complement that of Bill White, who won the gubernatorial nomination with more than three our of four votes in a multi-candidate field.

Some of the welders who were brought into the U.S. to help build a bridge over the Trinity River weren't even working for the Italian company that was providing steel for the project and weren't even Italian, WFAA-TV reports.

The workers were hired last year despite skyrocketing unemployment in the U.S. and despite the use of federal, state and local tax dollars to build the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. Not long after work began, it was discovered that workers had assembled a major portion of the span incorrectly and the work had to be dismantled and reassembled.

Seven of the 11 welders have seen their visas revoked and the other four are at risk for the same action if they leave the U.S., reporter Byron Harris states.

The episode raises all sorts of legal questions. Claims made by the company about the workers' special expertise -- along with the claim that they were eligible to take the jobs in the first place -- have simply not held up.

The following is the list of endorsements by the Texas AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education (COPE), which is the political arm of the state labor federation.

Delegates to the COPE Convention made endorsement decisions for statewide candidates. Endorsements of candidates for Congress, the Texas Legislature and the State Board of Education take place at the Central Labor Council level, and will be added here as they arrive. (Please note: Some Central Labor Councils do not endorse in uncontested races.)

“These endorsements set the stage for a campaign for change on Texas priorities,” Texas AFL-CIO President Becky Moeller said. “The labor movement in Texas will do everything possible to alter the narrative for working families in Texas.”

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A Texas House Committee will take testimony on a so-called "voter ID" bill that seeks to solve a nonexistent problem while whiffing on real problems of voter fraud.  As Texas AFL-CIO Legislative/Political Director René Lara stated in his testimony before the Texas Senate, the proposal would actually help promote a national photo ID system, rather than prevent actual voter fraud.

  The most recent assessment of charter school performance in Texas shows, yet again, performance that is inferior to public schools, the Texas AFT reports.

Ed Sills, director of communications for the Texas AFL-CIO, recently went back to school—high school. He spent a day observing a veteran union organizer get students involved in a hands-on educational experience on the crucial role of unions in their working lives.  “We’ll just let these two ladies clean the bathroom because that’s a woman’s job,” declared Lee Medley, president of the Galveston County AFL-CIO, with a sly glance toward the men.  Read more...