Thanks to your support, on Thursday the Senate voted NO on the Vitter-Bennett amendment by voting for for cloture in a 60 - 39 vote on the Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations bill. For now, this puts to rest the divisive Vitter-Bennett amendment.

Thanks to SEIU's Don't Wreck the Census campaign--our micro site and Tweet your Senator tool--we generated over 750 letters and 1,700 phone calls to members of the Senate, urging them to vote NO on the Vitter-Bennett amendment.

In a statement, SEIU Executive Vice President Eliseo Medina said:

"Today U.S. Senators put working families ahead of the politics of division and hatred. Joining a chorus of former U.S. Census Directors and advocacy leaders, the Senate voted down Senators Vitter and Bennett's misguided attempt to undercut 2010 enumeration efforts and mar this critical process with hateful, anti-immigrant politics."

Read full statement by Medina here.

Again--thank you for making calls, writing letters, blogging, and Tweeting your Senators to vote no on the Vitter-Bennett amendment. In addition to SEIU, the Don't Wreck the Census campaign was composed of the of the following organizations: AAJC, CAP, Demos, HNBA, LCCR, LDF, LULAC, MALDEF, NALEO, NDN, PFAW, SEIU.

Read coverage of the victory in NOLA.com, the Associated Press and the Wall Street Journal.

Our nation has lost a great hero and champion of working people. Crystal Lee Sutton was a courageous woman who stood up for herself and her coworkers under the most difficult circumstances. She was an inspiration to organizers in this union and beyond, particularly Southern women who went on to lead their own campaigns after learning from her example.

It's well-known that Crystal's story was the inspiration for the academy award-winning 1979 film Norma Rae, but I wish more people knew the real story of Crystal Lee Sutton and her co-workers, and the strength and honor they showed as they fought to organize the textile giant JP Stevens. They stood up and proved that workers in the South could organize and change their jobs and their lives against all odds--across racial lines, and over the objections of anti-worker companies.

For decades, JP Stevens called the shots in Roanoke Rapid, North Carolina, paying poverty wages and offering deplorably unsafe working conditions. Workers routinely lost fingers, inhaled cotton dust, and lost hearing due to the deafening drone of machinery. JP Stevens was so vehemently anti-union that it systematically purchased small unionized textile mills in the south only to close them down. But as determined as JP Stevens was to keep its workers down, Crystal Lee Sutton was even more determined to lift them up and bring them a union.

Sutton knew that she and her co-workers deserved more out of their employer and in 1973, she found a way to bring that change when she agreed to help organize the plant with the assistance of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU) and its lead organizer, Eli Zivkovich.

JP Stevens mounted one of the most vigorously hostile union-busting efforts ever seen in U.S. history, amounting in over 122 unfair labor practice findings. But Sutton could not be deterred and at the end of a 10-year boycott, the 3,000 workers at JP Stevens won their 17 year fight with a strong contract.

She fought her whole life for working people, and as she fought cancer, she continued to be an advocate for the needs of working people. Once again, Crystal's story is of both an extraordinary woman and of every woman. Like so many other working families, after a lifetime of paying premiums, her health insurance coverage failed her. She took her challenges head on, and never stopped fighting for what was right. While she fought cancer she spoke out about the struggle she had with the health care system and the toll it was taking on her family.

Crystal Lee Sutton is an inspiration to every worker who holds out hope and is prepared to fight for justice and respect at work. Our condolences go to her family, but they should know that we will not forget her, and she continues to inspire our union and workers throughout the world.

* Read the Statement on the passing of Crystal Lee Sutton from Bruce Raynor, President, Workers United, SEIU

On June 9, dozens of janitors laid off from Cisco Systems in San Jose, CA ended a 7-day hunger fast protesting the company's corporate greed and unfair treatment. Check out this new video SEIU United Service Workers West created documenting the breaking of the fast:

The janitors at Cisco Systems first began protesting the corporation--which currently has more than $34 billion in cash assets on hand--when contractor ABM Industries Inc. laid off more than 40 percent of its total janitorial workforce in February. The janitors that remain on the job at Cisco are now being forced to shoulder higher workloads.

The important principle these fasting janitors have sacrificed so much to make: a company that has $34 billion in cash assets and paid its CEO $18.8 million last year shouldn't just stand by while $12-an-hour workers are let go by the contractor Cisco hired to work on its campus.

Watch a short video* documenting the June 15, 1990 incident

June 15th has been observed for 19 years in the U.S. as Justice for Janitors Day, a day when janitors and other workers who secure, clean, and maintain office buildings demonstrate for justice. The original Justice for Janitors Day was established after janitors in Los Angeles were beaten by police during a peaceful demonstration on June 15, 1990. The incident generated intense public outrage and resulted in the cleaning contractor recognizing the L.A. janitors in a union. In remembrance of that monumental day, SEIU janitors and supporters take action every June 15 in cities nationwide. This day is also observed around the globe as International Justice Day.

On Monday, SEIU Local 49 janitors held a rally and march in Portland in remembrance of Justice for Janitors Day and to send a message to Portland real estate interests that even in tough economic times, the men and women who keep the city's buildings clean expect their contract to be followed.

Last year, SEIU Local 49 janitors won a major improvement in their multi-employer union contract -- company-paid health coverage for their children. This July, the janitors are supposed to receive a $0.50 per hour raise in pay. Local elected officials Jeff Cogen, Multnomah County Commissioner; Sam Adams, Portland Mayor; and Nick Fish, Portland City Councilor, attended the J4J rally to echo the janitor's concerns that low-wage workers can't accept any steps backwards to help wealthy property owners balance their budgets.

Since 1985, more than 225,000 janitors in 30 cities throughout the U.S. and Canada have united through SEIU's Justice for Janitors (J4J) campaign.