Amy Walker, a food service worker from Pittsburgh, had never spoken to a member of Congress until she made a trip last week to Washington, D.C., to tell her state's representatives and senators that cutting vital programs could have an adverse impact on working people like her.

Her mother's kidneys stopped functioning three years ago, rendering her unable to return to her job as a child care provider due to dialysis treatments three times a week. After years of working and her unforeseen kidney failure, Social Security and Medicaid now are the critical lifelines that allow Amy's mother to keep a roof over her head and get the healthcare she needs. Amy also told her representative how Head Start ensures her granddaughter gets the quality early learning foundation she needs to do well in school.

Amy's story is not unique, nor are the complex circumstances that come with it. As lawmakers debate the so-called "fiscal cliff," they need to simultaneously be talking about protecting working people and the most vulnerable. Cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and other vital programs such as education would have severe short- and long-term consequences for Amy and millions of others.

Workers United/SEIU Laundry Workers Vote Overwhelmingly To Ratify Master Contract

Industrial laundry workers, who wash linen for New York's hotels, hospitals and restaurants, voted overwhelmingly to ratify a new master contract between 14 laundries in the New York Metro area and the Laundry, Distribution and Food Service Joint Board, Workers United/SEIU.

The contract includes significant wage gains for laundry workers, a majority of which are African-American women and Latina immigrants. New York Metro area laundry workers will also continue to have free employer paid individual medical, dental and vision insurance and a pension. Laundry workers will be part of one multi-employer contract, which sets the standards for a majority of laundries in the New York Metro area.

Earlier today, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, Senator Majority Leader Randy Richardville and Speaker of the House Jase Bolger announced that the Michigan Legislature would move forward with so-called right-to-work legislation, which if passed, would eliminate good-paying jobs and limit access to benefits like education and healthcare for hardworking Michigan families.

Following their announcement, Working Michigan, a broad coalition of faith, labor and community organizations issued the following statement:

"It seems that Snyder, Richardville and Bolger believe that decorating legislation with the phrase 'workplace freedom' and stating their alleged support of collective bargaining that Michiganders will understand this legislation to be a good thing for Michigan. But we will not be fooled."

SEIU members are fighting back as more than 300 janitors and window washers at O'Hare International Airport are at risk of losing their jobs just days before Christmas this year.

Which do you want first, the good news or the bad news?

Okay, good news first: 30,000 activists from across the country answered our call to action and signed a petition to tell Congress to focus on job creation -- which we know is the best way to fix our economy.

We told you that if you signed, we'd deliver that message to the halls of power. And that's exactly what we did.

During a visit to D.C. this week, I helped deliver more than 30,000 of our signatures to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, a champion for working families. I was very proud to be our messenger.

It also was a victory for working families who want Congress to create a future of economic growth without cutting critical programs that would cripple our economy.

But here's the "bad news." The fight's not over and working families still need your help.

Next week, we're turning up the pressure on our elected leaders.

On Wednesday, will you call your Senator? Click here to let us know you can call.

We need to make sure our government hears directly from people like you and me.

Pledge to call here, and we'll be in touch with instructions: http://www.seiuvolunteers.com/

At 6:30 a.m. Thursday, workers at a McDonald's in Manhattan walked off the job.

Throughout the morning, they were joined by Burger King, Domino's, KFC, Taco Bell, Wendy's, Papa John's and other McDonald's workers throughout New York City in what became the first multi-restaurant strike by fast-food workers in U.S. history.

Many of New York's fast food workers earn the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour -- even after years of work -- and are forced to rely on public assistance to survive. These workers are striking for a living wage of $15 and the right to form a union.

On C-SPAN's Newsmakers Sunday, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry made it clear that SEIU members will fight right-wing efforts to hold working people's interests hostage to tax cuts for the wealthy:

"Our current position is there is no reason to entertain any question about cuts to vital programs because there is no indication that will break the logjam. If we can begin to have a conversation about revenue in this country, then let's prioritize how we get people back to work."

During the half-hour segment, host Greta Brawner and reporters Nancy Cook and Heidi Przybyla asked Henry about what's at stake for working people as lawmakers discuss solutions to the fiscal cliff. Henry said Americans on Nov. 6 voted to rebuild the middle class, to invest in good jobs, and to protect vital services, but we're now in our second campaign to make sure Congress heeds the will of voters.

This post originally appeared at Huffington Post Politics Thursday, November 29, 2011.

Something is rotten in the halls of Congress. After a post-election epiphany where the Republican Party became aware of its own relationship faults with Latino and immigrant communities, House and Senate Republicans rushed to show their first efforts to fulfill the immigration void. But their remedies are crumbs versus the full loaf of economic and social benefits that would come from common sense immigration reform.

This week, the House will likely vote on the STEM Job Acts, a partisan special interest bill authored by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), who in a recent editorial called an ABC News/Washington Post poll -- which found that 57 percent of Americans support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants -- biased and "skews results to support the media's predetermined notions." Just as Smith clearly refuses to accept the public's unequivocal backing for such a reform, so too do the Republicans refuse to see what's right in front of their faces.

My name is Joshua Williams, and today, I'm taking a big risk.

Last year, the CEO of Wendy's took home $16.5 million dollars while I barely scraped by on $16,000. Like so many of my fellow fast food workers who work long hours at my store, I struggle to earn the money I need to pay for my rent, food, clothing, housing, student loans and childcare for my 7-month-old son Jayvon.

Today, my coworkers and I are fighting for our rights and to end that constant struggle. We're striking for a livable wage of $15/hour and our right to form a union. But we need your help.

Tell the CEOs of Wendy's, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Domino's, KFC, Taco Bell, Papa John's and Burger King to pay hard workers like me a living wage.

If we win this fight, the 50,000 New Yorkers working in the fast food industry will have access to a better life. Despite common stereotypes, most of us are not teenagers working after school, but grown adults with kids of our own and bills to pay.