After the now infamous Christmas day “crotch bomber” episode on Northwest Airlines Flight 253, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) couldn’t keep his anti-union bile from bubbling out of his mouth. DeMint, who has single-handedly bottled up the nomination of Erroll Southers to head the Transportation Security Agency (TSA), screeched that if TSA workers were allowed to unionize, terrorists clothed in plastic explosive-laden underwear or shoes or ball caps would begin blasting airplanes out of the sky on a regular basis. BTW, the Obama administration supports the radical idea that TSA workers should be allowed to choose whether to join a union. Workers should have the choice, not officious senators.

      A new year brings with it lots of hope. Let’s hope 2010 brings a health care reform bill that does not penalize working families with a tax on their coverage. Because right now, as New York Times columnist Bob Herbert aptly describes it, there is a ”middle-class tax time bomb ticking in the Senate’s version” of the health care reform legislation.

      Here’s your chance to take a look at the work world as seen through the lenses of 15 members of the Electrical Workers (IBEW) and choose what you think are the top photographs in the IBEW’s 2009 Photo Contest.

Whoa. This from the Washington Post: The past decade was the worst for the U.S. economy in modern times… WaPo is the kind of newspaper that leans heavily toward emphasizing happy economic news, even in the face of 10 percent unemployment. So its coverage of the decade of disaster means the stuation must really be bad. How bad?

      In 1979, Beth Szillagyi, an honor roll college student, was desperate to find a job. Even with her Illinois Army National Guard education benefits, the burden of college costs and keeping a roof over her head and food on the table were too much. After months of searching and time in lousy sales job, she says, “I saw ‘my’ job” in the want ads of the local newspaper.

      The holiday season is a time to step back from the daily grind, relax with family and reflect on the future. This year was a tough one for workers.  In times like these, we appreciate more than ever the love and support of our families and our unions.

      Illinois Firefighter (IAFF) Greg Curry’s elk-hunting adventure in some of Colorado’s most breathtaking countryside kicks off the fourth season of ”Escape to the Wild” on VERUS Country. The season premiere of the show, which takes union members on once-in-a-lifetime hunting and fishing adventures, will air Sunday, Jan. 3, at 9:30 a.m. EST.  

    Royetta Sanford, left, is mentoring future union leader Carrie Meyers-Herron, right.         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.

       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.

      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.