A scuffle erupted between protesters and the police on Thursday, after several hundred union members and activists finished a rally against Governor Luis Fortuño outside El Conquistador hotel, where the Governor held a conference with business companies on public-private partnerships. The hotel resort is in Fajardo, a town east of San Juan to which the Governor arrived by helicopter to avoid the protest.

Check out photos from the protest:

Rally participants from coalition Todo Puerto Rico Por Puerto Rico and journalists were pushed by the police riot squad in Fajardo, with police officers claiming the protest was already finished and some "troublemakers" did not want to leave the premises. The protest was called to condemn the nearly 20,000 layoffs of public employees--which includes over 7,000 members of SEIU Local 1996SPT--by Gov. Fortuño's administration, and his initiatives for the private sector to take services and state project.

President of SPT-SEIU Robert Pagan said his union is in talks with the Obama administration to discuss federal economic stimulus funds given to Puerto Rico being used to lay-off public employees.

Labor Day is a time to reflect on the achievements of the American worker and our nation's commitment to helping all families pursue the American Dream--especially now that many are facing difficult times, as the result of the recession and the anti-worker agenda carried out by the previous administration. In a short period of time, President Obama and the 111th Congress have made progress to undo many policies that have harmed our nation's workers; showing time and time again that they stand on the side of working families.

Here are some of the strides made so far on behalf of American workers:

Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act: The first major piece of legislation President Obama signed at the end of January ensures that women and other workers who receive discriminatory pay have access to a remedy. The new law reversed the May 2007 Supreme Court decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear and restored prior law which treated each discriminatory paycheck received by a worker as a violation of the Civil Rights Act.

Affordable Health Coverage for Laid-off Workers: A provision in the Recovery Act will assist 7 million people laid off in this recession with the cost of their health insurance coverage, who would otherwise face paying a substantial monthly amount to keep it. People who were laid off between from their jobs between 9/1/08 and 12/31/09 pay only 35 percent of their COBRA premiums and the remaining 65 percent is reimbursed to the coverage provider through a tax credit.

Increasing the Minimum Wage: On July 24th, the national minimum wage increased by 70 cents per hour--from $6.55 per hour to $7.25 per hour-the final of three increases to take effect under legislation enacted by the Democratic Congress. "[The] minimum wage increase is an important step in strengthening our economy by putting $1,400 a year in the pockets of 13 million hardworking Americans who make the Federal minimum wage," said SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger.

Increasing Wage Theft Enforcement: As a result increased funding in the Recovery Act, the Department of Labor announced that the agency plans on hiring 250 investigators for its Wage and Hour Division. A Government Accountability Office investigation found many investigations of wage theft, in which workers are not paid minimum wages or not paid at all, were inadequately handled by the Bush administration's Wage and Hour Division, which had been starved of staff and resources.

Worker Protection Programs: In December 2008, the American Worker Project at the Center for American Progress released a report noting that "one of the hallmarks of President George W. Bush's administration has been its failure to enforce laws designed to protect ordinary Americans," particularly the Labor Department's "inadequate enforcement of important workplace protections." The Obama administration has pushed to clean up the mess, requesting a 10 percent budget increase for worker protection programs.

Stopping Last-Minute Bush Proposal to Weaken Worker Health & Safety Protections: The Department of Labor announced that they will withdraw a Bush era proposal that would have dramatically weakened future workplace health and safety regulations and slow their enactment. (Announced May 15, 2009)

Can you think of any Congressional accomplishments made on behalf of workers that I've left off this list? If so, please leave your feedback in the "Comments" section below.

Glenn Beck may be feeling slightly less than relaxed and rejuvenated after returning from vacation on Monday. Since he's been gone, the number of advertisers who've signed on to dissociate themselves from The Glenn Beck Show's rhetoric of fear-mongering paranoia has reached a total of 36--up from 20 just one week ago.

Advertisers including Wal-Mart, Geico, CVS, Clorox and Sprint have discontinued their commercials from airing on Beck's self-titled Fox News show--and it's not hard to see why. The fallout has stemmed largely from Glenn Beck's declaration that he believes President Barack Obama to be a racist--a comment which, sadly enough, makes up only a percentage of Beck's total on-air proliferation of inflammatory hateful rhetoric and fear-mongering.

On Tuesday during his 5 p.m. EDT show, instead of addressing the boycott spearheaded by Color of Change to protest the talk show host's remark about President Obama last month, Beck essentially acted like a child who's been caught behaving badly...but won't admit he did it. The difference is that Glenn Beck is old enough to know better. Instead of accepting responsibility for his actions and apologizing, Beck spent much of his show attacking Color of Change co-founder Van Jones. (Sidenote: Jones is the current special advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. He's widely respected for his efforts to retrofit and re-power America using clean, green energy -- while also creating millions of new green jobs).

"Glenn Beck is trying to change the subject," said Color of Change executive director James Rucker to the LA Times. "The issue is his baseless fear mongering." Glenn Beck is doing his best to usher in a new era of fear mongering and histrionics every weeknight on his show--and it's up to us to push back. So far, the campaign to call on advertisers to drop sponsorship of Glenn Beck has amassed more than 160,000 signatures. Join the call to hold Glenn Beck and Fox News accountable for Beck's race baiting.

In other Glenn Beck "news"... On the August 24 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Glenn Beck Program, Beck claimed there is "evil at play" in the Obama administration...and talked for several minutes about how he thinks "they" are out to destroy him.

Glenn Beck's always been a "colorful" character, but this is a little over the top, even for him. Guess Beck just can't fathom the reality that much of the American public (including us) might not find his narrow viewpoint and hateful, inflammatory rhetoric objectionable and counter-productive--so instead, he chooses to spurts crazy right-wing fodder that there is some conspiracy theory at play and people are out to get him.

Beck said on Aug. 24 that is going to detail it on his show tonight--and Sarah Palin is rallying her Facebook community to watch him tonight as well. As one of my coworkers joked this morning...."Someone should bring popcorn for this!"

This week, SEIU Executive VP Eliseo Medina is in Mexico City meeting with key legislators and labor leaders on the importance of working together to improve labor rights and economic opportunities for workers on both sides of the border. "In order to build an immigration system that puts an end to the senseless suffering of so many families on both sides of the border, labor, social and political organizations in both countries must work together to build comprehensive reforms that are just and humane," Medina remarked to El Universal during a press conference with key reporters in Mexico City.

In other immigration reform news....

A temporary victory on E-Verify: On Friday two harmful E-Verify amendments were defeated in the House Appropriations committee for the Department of Homeland Security. Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) and Rep. Ken Calvart (R-CA) had proposed two separate E-Verify amendments to the House Appropriations bill for FY2010, but both amendments failed. The Kingston amendment would have required government contractors to run all employees and new hires through E-Verify. Rep. Calvart's amendment would have made E-Verify permanent in the House Appropriations bill, but it received resistance from, most notably, Rep. David Price who argued that the E-Verify will be addressed during a larger immigration reform debate.

Bush Rule Bolstering Deportations Is Withdrawn: Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. reversed a Bush administration ruling that had weakened the ability of immigrants facing deportation to argue that their lawyers did a bad job. The original order, issued just days before the inauguration of President Obama, held that immigrants did not have a constitutional right to effective lawyers in their deportation hearings. That 11th-hour decision abruptly closed off one of the most common avenues for appealing deportation decisions.

U.S. Temporarily Suspends Policy of Deporting Widows of Citizens: The Department of Homeland Security said last Tuesday it is temporarily freezing a policy of deporting widows and widowers of U.S. citizens, a sign of the Obama administration's interest in new approaches to immigration. Only a few hundred people were at risk of deportation under the policy, but critics viewed it as one of the most painful consequences of President George W. Bush's immigration crackdown.

In a victory for struggling homecare workers, the Obama Administration ruled last week that California's proposed cuts to the In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program violates the terms of the federal stimulus aid going to the state under the terms of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

Citing a $40 billion budget deficit, California legislators passed a budget in February containing $1 billion in "trigger cuts," which included cutting a sizable chunk of funding to the IHSS program, which provides vital services that allow the elderly and people with disabilities to receive care in their homes--instead of being forced into nursing homes or institutions. California legislators voted to slice the state's contribution toward homecare worker wages by a staggering 20 percent, lowering the state's contribution from $11.50 to $9.50 per hour. The cuts were scheduled to go into effect on July 1, 2009.

However, SEIU refused to take these cuts lying down and requested a second opinion from Obama's Department of Health and Human Services, saying the wage reductions violate provisions of the ARRA. The Obama administration agreed--and in a ruling last week, notified Schwarzenegger's office that California's cuts to state funding for IHSS are out of compliance with the requirements of the federal Recovery Act for receiving enhanced Medicaid funding.

This ruling is a major victory for California's 250,000 IHSS workers and the 440,000 seniors and people with disabilities who rely on IHSS for daily care. However, the fight's not over yet: the Obama administration is now threatening to rescind billions of dollars in federal stimulus money if Gov. Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers do not restore wage cuts to unionized home healthcare workers approved in February as part of the budget. "The Obama Administration has made it clear that the State cannot cut the homecare workers' wages. Now we need our counties to follow suit and take all the cuts off the table," said SEIU Executive VP Eliseo Medina.

Join the fight to stop home care cuts.

Today, SEIU is joining a diverse group of organizations at the White House, unveiling a plan to reduce the cost of health care and jumpstart the drive toward real reform. The groups ­ AHIP, AMA, AHA, PhRMA, SEIU and AdvaMed are teaming up with the Obama administration to curb health care costs through improved efficiency and higher quality of care.

The basic premise of the plan is simple: even small changes in how we deliver health care add up when applied across the board. All told, the changes we're implementing will reduce spending growth by 1.5% for the next 10 years. That doesn't sound like a lot, but it means a saving of $2 trillion over the next 10 years; that's $2,500 in savings for a typical American family.

Today marks the 100th day Obama has been in the Oval Office. Over the past three months, President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Congress have made major strides to rebuild America for working families. "President Obama has made it clear from day one that we will not be able to rebuild our economy stronger than it was without a greater voice, and greater prosperity, for American workers," said SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger in a statement, highlighting workers' engagement during the Administration's first 100 days:

Countless hours by SEIU members and other workers reaching out to our neighbors and co-workers helped pass an economic recovery bill that is putting people back to work. Writing letters to our Representatives and newspapers until our hands hurt helped pass a budget with a real down payment on health care. Continuing to call our Senators until we have their numbers memorized will restore the freedom to form unions so that workers, not just CEOs, can benefit from economic progress.

Read Anna's full statement. In the YouTube video clip below, SEIU President Andy Stern talks about the amazing change we've seen over Obama's 100 Days: a stimulus, the passage of SCHIP, the passage of the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, a budget bill with green jobs, the introduction of the Employee Free Choice and more. Watch now:

Last week, President Obama announced SEIU's Michael Kerr as his nominee for Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management (OASAM) with the Department of Labor.

Kerr, who currently oversees finance and administration at SEIU as an Assistant to the Secretary-Treasurer, has served under two presidents.

President Obama demonstrated once again that he stands firmly with working families in supporting passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. Here's what he said yesterday to the AFL-CIO:

I do not view the labor movement as part of the problem. To me, and to my administration, labor unions are a big part of the solution. We need to level the playing field for workers and the unions that represent their interests - because we cannot have a strong middle class without a strong labor movement.

The truth is, the road ahead will not be easy. The economic crisis we face is vast and the challenges we confront are many; you know this because your members have already had to make sacrifices. But I have every confidence that if we are willing to do the difficult work that must be done, we will emerge from these trials stronger and more prosperous than we were before. And as we confront this crisis and work to provide health care to every American, rebuild our nation's infrastructure, move toward a clean energy economy, and pass the Employee Free Choice Act, I want you to know that you will always have a seat at the table.

Thank you for everything you do.

The President's statement was preceded by Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis' commitment to enforce the Employee Free Choice Act and comes ahead of the Vice President's expected support of the bill in his address to the AFL-CIO tomorrow.

Take a look at other past remarks by President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden on the need for the Employee Free Choice Act:

Barack Obama on the Employee Free Choice Act

Vice President Joe Biden: Employee Free Choice Act "This Year"

President Obama to the Washington Post on the Employee Free Choice Act

Don't miss Andy Stern this weekend on Washington Journal, C-Span's national public affairs show. Stern will discuss the American worker in the current economy, the Obama Administration, expectations of the Labor Department under new Secretary Hilda Solis, and what role labor plays in uplifting America's working families and communities.

To watch Andy live on Sunday at 8:30 a.m., visit C-Span's live stream at http://www.c-span.org/Watch/C-SPAN_wm.aspx

UPDATE: Watch Andy Stern now right here, 1 hour 34 minutes in.

OMAHA - While addressing a Joint Session of Congress tonight, President Obama outlined his plan to fix our economy by solving our nation's healthcare crisis. For Nebraska's working families, his call to action comes not a moment too soon. Nebraskans are building bipartisan grassroots support to make sure President Obama's plan, to fix America's healthcare system, becomes a reality.

Nebraska's health insurance premiums continue to skyrocket, with premiums increasing by 69.1% since 2000. As unemployment rises and costs climb, thousands are at risk of losing their coverage. The increasing demand for support is straining the state's budget, while increasing costs are forcing parents to choose between keeping their families healthy or keeping a roof over their heads.

SEIU believes in rewarding work and in tune with motto, we're rolling out a new television ad campaign today in support of Senator Harry Reid's work on behalf of Nevada's working families.

The statewide cable ad, titled "Hard Work," highlights a few of the many issues Senator Reid has been spearheading on behalf of Nevada's families, including healthcare reform, investments in alternative energy, rebuilding our infrastructure and an economic recovery package that works for every American.

Sen. Reid has worked to bring Republicans and Democrats together to fix the economic mess that President Bush and his Wall Street cronies left working families as they rode into the sunset with billions in taxpayer-financed bonuses. "Our nation's economy is in a state of emergency. The costs of inaction are too steep. It is time to put the needs of the American people ahead of partisan politics," said Reid earlier this month.

Watch the tv ad (the first of the 2010 campaign) here:

Today President Barack Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden announced the creation of the Middle Class Task Force, which the White House blog says is "targeted at raising the living standards of middle-class, working families in America." SEIU Secretary-Treasurer and Change to Win Chair Anna Burger was in attendance at the event today, and issued this statement in support (read the whole thing here):

The mandate of the Middle Class Working Families Task Force sends a clear signal of a new government. A government that makes sure working Americans are treated with the dignity and respect at the work place that everyone deserves. A government that understands that rebuilding the American Dream and fixing the economy means creating more than just jobs, it means creating good jobs with a wage that can support a family, benefits that can keep them healthy, and a secure and dignified retirement.

The Obama administration has shown a strong commitment to the needs of working people, and reaffirmed that today. We need to restore the American Dream, and the White House is asking you to submit your own ideas to the Task Force. You can do so by visiting their new website, which has a front banner that declares, "A Strong Middle Class = A Strong America." We couldn't agree more.

There are a total of three additional pro-worker executive orders (on top of the Task Force creation) that Obama will sign, overturning Bush-era policies:

• Require federal contractors (holding contracts above $100,000) to post a balanced notice of their employees' rights under the National Labor Relations Act;
• Require federal service contractors providing services to federal buildings to offer a right of first refusal to the nonsupervisory, nonmanagerial employees of the predecessor contractor for positions for which they were qualified; and
• Prevent federal contractors from being reimbursed for expenditures intended to support or deter their employees' exercise of their right to form unions and engage in collective bargaining.

For more information, read Biden's Op-Ed in USA Today.

"There'd be no middle class without labor movement:" Watch Biden talk about the new task force in live coverage from the announcement earlier today:

Politico reports today that President Barack Obama plans to convene a White House working meeting to address the nation's health care system sometime in the late winter or early spring. The meeting would bring together key members of Congress and other stakeholders (we presume that means insurance industry types, various employers, health care professionals, etc).

This is just the latest signal from the Obama Administration that health care will be a top priority in 2009. In mid-December, former Senate Majority Leader and nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Tom Daschle called on Americans to host health care discussions in their homes, workplaces and communities. (Watch highlights of our SEIU staff discussion here). More than 330 SEIU online activists signed up to host their own health care discussions during the holidays.

More good news, reports Politico:

"Obama and his point person on health care, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, have staffed up like they plan to push forward with it, lining up a roster of communications and policy strategists to assist in the effort."

I'm guessing Sen. Daschle is having no trouble at all finding qualified, hard-working people willing to head to Washington to fix our nation's health care system. Let's get to work! If you haven't already, support the Obama Administration's efforts by adding your name to keep health care on the map.

This morning SEIU unveiled online advertising to promote the New York Times' recent support of the early passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. The ads are running on the websites of The Hill, Roll Call, Politico, the Washington Post, and progressive blogs (see the ad on the right).

In late December 2008, the New York Times editorialized about unions and the Obama Administration's commitment to labor. The paper gave a full-throated endorsement of the Employee Free Choice Act and why it is such an important part of an economic recovery program.

The Times wrote of the Employee Free Choice Act:

The measure is vital legislation and should not be postponed. By giving employees a bigger say in compensation issues, unions also help to establish corporate norms, the absence of which has contributed to unjustifiable disparities between executive pay and rank-and-file pay. There is a strong argument that the slack labor market of a recession actually makes unions all the more important.

SEIU's online ads invite viewers to join the campaign for the Employee Free Choice Act.

This morning, the Philadelphia Inquirer published an editorial focusing on the uninsured and the incoming Obama Administration:

"So far, Obama is making all the right moves. Most important, he appears to be sticking to his first-year timetable - economic crisis or not."

The editorial lauds the nomination of former Senator Tom Daschle, stating that it's an indication that "the new administration plans to move boldly." Daschle, the piece states, is "well-versed in the ways of Congress, where Obama's reform will rise or fall," and that Daschle's plan to expand coverage while pulling the reins on health costs is a "workable strategy."

The piece also commends Obama on the health care meet-ups that have been taking place. Calling them a "smart move," the paper says that by "sampling public input on health care reform," the incoming administration will be able to "incorporate ideas from the grassroots" and learn from the "top-down" model that "helped sidetrack Clinton-era reform efforts."

The editorial board's conclusion?

"A can-do spirit and sense of urgency from a president-elect who wants 'change' are the best things America's uninsured have going for them."