During a Senate HELP Committee hearing on nominations to the National Labor Relations Board (NLBR) yesterday, Senator Al Franken (D-MN) shared the story of Susie Stetler, a former SEIU member.

Watch Senator Franken tell Susie's story:

More on Susie's story:

Susie Stetler is waiting on $40,000 in back pay that was withheld by her employer when she was illegally fired.

Susie was a bus driver for special needs students for Visions of Elk River, a company that transports children to the Elk River School in Minnesota. The company employs bus drivers, van drivers, and aides that accompany special needs children in the buses and vans. In August of 2009, the company fired five employees (two drivers and three aides) who were active, vocal supporters of SEIU and had previously participated in campaigns to organize the bus and van drivers. Susie was one of those workers fired.

The firings were motivated by the workers' involvement in past union activity and the employer's express desire to "get rid of" union people. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found in September 2012 that the employer had violated the law by terminating the employees and ordered full back pay and reinstatement to their former positions.

The employer appealed the case to the D.C. Circuit. However, on February 7, 2013, the D.C. Circuit placed the case in abeyance following the decision in Noel Canning, further and indefinitely delaying enforcement of the NLRB decision as the drivers and aides approach their four year anniversary of being terminated.

After she was fired, it was hard or Susie to find another job. She decided to go back to school and has since moved to Wisconsin to care for her mother. Susie and her fellow co-workers who were fired are left in limbo, wondering if they will ever receive the back pay that is due to them.

The only way that Susie and her co-workers can find justice is for the Senate to confirm all five nominees to the NLRB.

We are so honored that Senator Franken shared Susie's story at the NLRB confirmation hearing. Because of him, the public was able to hear Susie's story as an example for why the NLRB nominees must be confirmed. We are extremely grateful to Senator Franken for agreeing to share Susie's story.

Today, hundreds of protesters are gathering in San Diego to protest on behalf of 550 janitors who stand to lose their jobs due to a Department of Homeland Security I-9 audit. This comes just days after a rally at the Federal Building with the same plea.

The protesters' ask is simple: Stop persecuting these families until Congress gets it's job done in fixing our broken immigration system that will put these hardworking immigrants on the road to citizenship.

In the midst of the nation's debate on immigration reform, and strong bipartisan leadership to pass an immigration reform bill, the targeting and persecution of these workers is in absolute antithesis to the direction our country is headed.

How did we get to where we are now?

That's the central question posed by a Washington Post four-part video series on immigration reform. The series examines immigration policy over the past four decades and prominently features SEIU International Secretary-Treasurer Eliseo Medina as a leader in the fight. The first part of the series - aptly entitled "It didn't work" - looks at the first bill signed by President Reagan, with commentary discussing why offering amnesty for people who came to the country was not enough, especially since the bill didn't address the future flow of immigrants.

In his commentary, Medina notes that because of poverty and turmoil in some Latin American countries at the time, the flow of immigrants was sure to increase. He also offered that the reason immigration is now at the forefront of the national agenda is because the Latino community made its voice heard at the ballot box.

Watch all four videos of the Washington Post's 4-part series.

Yesterday was an intense day for immigration reform in our country, representing the continued tension felt in the immigration debate.

As the Senate moved closer to reaching an immigration solution that honors workers and paves a roadmap to citizenship for aspiring Americans, a handful of conservative Members of Congress continued their defiant opposition to what has been a bipartisan effort.

First, the second day of markups began on the Senate immigration bill, and much positive progress was made. Many amendments were adopted which would strengthen protections for current and future working families and cultivate immigration from underrepresented countries. Two visa programs - the H-1B and STEM visa program - were strengthened which will attract highly-skilled workers to American businesses.

When Congress found their flights home delayed because of federal budget cuts, they quickly took action to end furloughs at the Federal Aviation Administration and got flights back on schedule.

But Head Start teachers and parents who rely on the program weren't so lucky.
According to the New York Times, Congress is voting for "special-interest demands for exceptions."1 But most of the sequester cuts hit programs that serve workers and low-income communities. Our needs are going unheard.

Be the face of Head Start. Add your photo to our online photo petition launched by Head start teachers and families to urge Congress to put an end to damaging sequester cuts.

After months of walking the halls, talking with legislators and attending hearings at the State Capitol, 23-year old home care worker Darleen Henry is overjoyed that a bill that would give her the right to vote on whether she wants to form a union is finally headed to the floor for final votes in both the Minnesota House and the Senate.

"This bill is a huge deal for my family and me," said Darleen Henry, who lives in Rosemount. "I want the opportunity to join together in a union with other home care workers so we can make doing this work sustainable. Workers - including me - face low wages and absolutely no benefits, despite working round-the-clock caring for the elderly and people living with disabilities. I don't want to be forced to leave this career simply because I can't make ends meet. If that happened, my mom would be forced to move into a nursing home, and that would break her heart and mine."

Yesterday, May 9th, the Senate Judiciary Committee began their markups of the bipartisan immigration bill currently under debate. By the end of the day, they had left intact core elements of the bill that strengthen civil and human rights and create a clear and direct roadmap to citizenship for aspiring Americans.

"We commend the Senators on the Judiciary Committee for adopting a majority of amendments in a bipartisan fashion," stated Eliseo Medina of SEIU. "The amendments adopted continue to reflect our values as a democratic nation of laws, and those amendments defeated have kept the heart legislation unscathed. As we watch momentum for commonsense immigration reform grow every day, we continue to be optimistic about the bipartisan nature of the debate and look forward to seeing it continue."

In most workplaces, it's common to see a poster somewhere public - like a shared lunchroom - notifying employees of their workplace rights on issues such as equal opportunity and health and safety. Most workplaces don't, however, have posters notifying employees of their rights (e.g. to form a union) under the National Labor Relations Act. And after a D.C. Circuit Court ruling this week, this seems depressingly unlikely to change anytime soon.

The NLRB tried to fix this in 2011 with a rule requiring employers to post an informational notice in the workplace. Not surprisingly, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce of other corporate-backed groups challenged the rule and delayed its implementation.