As the nation’s economy continues its tailspin, the American public is hungry for measures to strengthen the middle class. With the new 111th Congress set to convene in less than two months, a broad coalition of progressive groups is making sure the lawmakers and the new president hear the message loud and clear that the Employee Free Choice Act must be a key part of efforts to rebuild the economy.

Yesterday, the workers’ advocacy group American Rights at Work launched the first issue advertising campaign for the new Congress. The nationwide TV ad campaign reminds lawmakers of the broad public support for the Employee Free Choice Act, which would give working people the freedom to make their own decision about whether and how to form a union. (Check out the video above.)

Congress passed a big bailout for Wall Street financial giants last month—so why are some lawmakers on Capitol Hill willing to let the auto industry twist in the wind? Firedoglake's Jane Hamsher says it just might have something to do with the fact that the auto industry is unionized—and some ideologically driven lawmakers would like to see a big unionized industry fail.

But withholding aid from automakers could literally eliminate millions of good U.S. jobs: The Big Three companies employ some 240,000 workers, and their suppliers an additional 2.3 million, amounting to nearly 2 percent of the nation’s workforce, as Louis Uchitelle points out today.

Hundreds of registered nurses in Texas, represented by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, rallied for the Texas Hospital Patient Protection Act of 2009—and more news from the "Bargaining Digest Weekly." The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 900 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.

WORK STOPPAGES AND ACTIONS

CNA/NNOC, Texas: Hundreds of registered nurses in Texas, represented by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC), rallied at the state Capitol in support of the Texas Hospital Patient Protection Act of 2009, which cracks down on unsafe hospital practices.

The Bush Labor Department is not enforcing the laws that protect workers from wage theft—workers not being paid what they earn or are due, says Kim Bobo, executive director of Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ). Immediate and major reforms are needed to ensure that in these hard economic times every worker receives each dollar to which he or she is entitled.

In her new book, Wage Theft in America: Why Millions of Working Americans Are Not Getting Paid—And What We Can Do About It, Bobo says wage theft is “an epidemic” in the nation, especially in the low-wage labor market. Click here to order a copy of the book.

Wage theft is a national crisis. As many as two or three million workers are not being paid minimum wage, millions are denied overtime pay.

On Workers Memorial Day this year, ground was broken at the National Labor College (NLC) for a National Workers Memorial to honor working men and women men killed on the job.

At the ceremony, Mine Workers (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts said:

This will be the only place in America where workers from all industries, all crafts, all walks of life who are killed on the job are memorialized. We build this memorial to honor and remember them and to remind us of the work that still remains to be done to make America's workplaces as safe and healthy as possible.

Here's the latest update from the NLC:

The National Workers Memorial arose from the hearts and minds of National Labor College students who wanted a place to remember their fallen brothers and sisters. They agreed it was important that such a place be built on the campus where union members from across the labor movement come to learn and strengthen the future of our movement. To begin construction, our goal is to raise $500,000.

AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker and Rep. John Conyers reflect on Martin Luther King Jr.’s support for workers.

As the United States prepares to inaugurate its first African American president, hundreds of union and civil rights activists will celebrate and honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., who helped pave the way for this historic shift in the nation’s politics.

During the annual AFL-CIO King Day celebration, held Jan. 15–19, 2009, in New Orleans, participants will examine what the 2008 election means for our nation and working families and give back through community service in a city that continues to suffer from the effects of Hurricane Katrina, which hit three years ago.

AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker says King’s legacy is directly linked to the political actions of people of color and union members. She reminds us that King often tied the civil rights and union rights movements as one in the same.

The U.S. auto industry "cannot succeed in today's unstable economic environment without immediate help from the federal government. And the costs of failure are unacceptable," UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said in a Washington Post op-ed today.

If even one U.S. automaker fails, he warned, it would cost the entire country millions of lost jobs and hundreds of billions of dollars in lost sales and revenue.

The auto industry crisis, exacerbated by stalled consumer spending and lack of credit, affects much more than the Big Three automakers and the 240,000 people who work for them, Gettelfinger said. It also endangers thousands of car dealerships, small and medium-size businesses that provide parts and services to the auto giants and more than a million retirees and dependents who receive pension and health care benefits from Chrysler, Ford and General Motors.

As part of its last-minute move to push dozens of pro-business regulations onto the books before it leaves office, the Bush administration today issued new finalized rules for the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) that will make it tougher for some 77 million workers to use leave when they need to take care of themselves or family members.

Jocelyn Frye, general counsel for the National Partnership for Women & Families, says the new rules:

Will make it more difficult to take leave when they needed it.

The G-20 trade union leaders declared that the global economy should work for the poor, such as this woman who hauls dirt in India for about $2.50 a day.

Trade union leaders from the G-20 countries today called on world leaders to take urgent action to prevent a deep and long-lasting global recession, to make fundamental changes in the way the global economy is run and to turn back decades of deregulation policies that have caused the current crisis.

The union leaders also say a fresh push for development and decent work is needed, as well as a “Green New Deal” to tackle climate change effectively.

The AFL-CIO is hosting the meeting of the union leaders in conjunction with the financial crisis summit of G-20 leaders this weekend in Washington, D.C. The meeting is sponsored by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (TUAC-OECD) and Global Unions.

The new Obama administration and the new Congress must urgently address the nation's growing financial crisis and long-term structural economic decline with a wide range of actions, including an immediate and meaningful economic recovery package, an overhaul of our broken health care system, reform of financial regulations and significant investments in infrastructure, clean energy and workforce development.

But, says the AFL-CIO Executive Council in a statement approved today:

Unless we restore the power of working people to bargain with their companies for a better life, economic growth will not be broadly shared and income inequality will not diminish.