Stop by any corner grocery store and ask the people standing in line: What do you worry about most—jobs or the nation’s budget deficit? If they don’t choke up laughing, chances are real high they’ll give the same response as did the public in two recent polls: Priority #1: Jobs. Priority #2: Jobs.

      AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said tonight on MSNBC’s “The Ed Show” he was encouraged by the White House Jobs Summit earlier today and that he’s looking forward to working on the urgent goal of job creation. 

JOIN THE LIVE CHAT VISIT WHITEHOUSE.GOV        Today, the White House has convened a summit to discuss solutions to our nation’s job crisis. President Barack Obama has invited elected officials, academics, union leaders and business executives to talk about how to create jobs and turn our economy around.

    UA member Rosie Britz is mobilizing in support of real health care reform.         Rosie Britz, a member of the Plumbers and Pipe Fitters (UA), is just one of thousands of union volunteers who have put time and effort into the fight for health care reform. Britz says health care reform is critical for the uninsured—as well as ensuring people like her, who have insurance, have more security:

    Rite Aid worker Tom Brown (far right), ILWU organizer Mary Winzig and supporters confront Rite Aid CEO and execs.         Workers at Rite Aid’s Lancaster, Calif., distribution center have been fighting for justice and a voice at work for years. Here’s the latest report on their battle from Rand Wilson, AFL-CIO Organizing Department communications specialist. For more background on the workers’ fight, click here, here and here.

  The Machinists union (IAM) has been at the forefront of the fight to end our nation’s jobs crisis, and in a new video, the union is highlighting the dangerous rise in unemployment and the AFL-CIO’s five-point plan for job creation.

    This artwork by Amy Martin won both first place and the Public Choice award.         Amy Martin is a double winner in the Public Option Please (POP) art contest launched earlier this fall to cut through the rhetoric inside the Washington Beltway and provide a vehicle for artists to make the moral case for a public health insurance option as a part of health care reform.

AM and FM radio stations that broadcast songs over the air to your cars and homes have had a free ride for more than 80 years. They don’t have to pay the musicians and singers who make the music. A good deal for corporate radio, a bad deal for working musicians.  Legislation in Congress, the Performance Rights Act (S. 379 and H.R. 848), will make sure the band gets paid by requiring the stations to pay royalties to the performers whenever their work is aired. The bill, says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, “would correct an injustice that has been 80 years in the making.” In a letter to the U.S. Senate urging passage of the legislation, he says the bill 

      Today is World AIDS Day, and global union members are reinforcing their commitment to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS, which has infected 33 million people worldwide and more than 1 million in the United States. Around the world, the pandemic has devastated workers and their families, shattered communities and reversed the rise in work and living standards.