The working people taking to the streets this week in the Showdown of Chicago think the amount of money the ABA is spending to lobby against the Consumer Financial Protection Agency is downright scary. To drive their point home, some protesters donned their "Scary Movie"-like costumes a week before Halloween:

At the grand finale of Day 3 of the Showdown in Chicago, a group of protesters dressed like the Grim Reaper held plastic knives that read "making a killing" and "death bonds" at today's protest in front of the American Banking Association's meeting place the Sheraton Hotel, following the protests in front of Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo.

As the lobbying arm of the American banking industry, the ABA's members include the big banks that helped cause the crisis that has resulted in widespread economic devastation and led to $17.8 trillion in taxpayer funded bailouts and backstops for the banks. These banks include Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Citibank, which together account for 60% of all bank industry assets and mortgages in the U.S---and all received TARP money.

Now the ABA is spending millions of dollars to obstruct meaningful financial reform. Taking on the banksters has never been so imperative---and tomorrow's Showdown in Chicago will be the biggest event so far this week, where roughly 5,000 union members, farmers, small business owners and activists will descend upon the ABA's annual meeting to demand an end to bank's greed.

The march begins at the corner of Stetson and Wacker Drive at 10:30, followed by a march to the Sheraton, and will also feature speeches by Andy Stern, Anna Burger and Tom Balanoff. Will you join us in making our voices heard?

L ast night MSNBC's Rachel Maddow took on the radical right-wingers seeking to silence working families by attacking progressive community organizations. As part of that segment, she discussed with Peter Dreier, professor of politics at Occidental College in Los Angeles, why they're trying to target the SEIU next.

Watch the clip here:

You can watch the entire segment right here.

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

With 1.4 million Americans working in its stores, Wal-Mart bears a unique responsibility to its workers and our communities--which is why as Labor Day approaches, SEIU is part of a coalition of labor, environmental, consumer protection, and community groups led by UFCW that are challenging Wal-Mart to start practicing common-sense core American values like workers' rights, corporate responsibility, equal opportunity, quality jobs and environmental stewardship.

No other private, profit-making enterprise in the history of our country has had the economic scope and impact of Wal-Mart. "When a company gets to be as big as Wal-Mart and employs so many workers - more than any other private enterprise in the world - it is no longer a 'private' entity," said Neal Lichtenstein, author of The Retail Revolution: How Walmart Created a Brave New World of Business. "[Wal-Mart] sets the wage and benefit standard for every other mass retailer and influences the business practices of just about every firm in America's huge service sector. So Wal-Mart is part of this country's debate: on health care, wages, equal employment, and the role of trade unionism in our democracy."

Wal-Mart needs to change. Here's a simple breakdown of reasoning behind this campaign to hold Wal-Mart accountable for those challenges, and to the ideals it puts forth in its advertising:

Wal-Mart is America's store.

Wal-Mart is America's workplace.

Wal-Mart is America's town center.

Wal-Mart must reflect America's values.

Hard work should bring pay and benefits that can support families.

Workers have rights that even the largest employer must recognize and respect.

There are two new "Common Sense Economics" TV ads to go along with the launch of the American Values Agenda for Change at Wal-Mart. Watch them here (Ad #1, Ad #2):

SEIU's Walmart Watch recently joined WakeUpWalmart.com to hold America's largest private employer accountable. Learn more about how you can help challenge Wal-Mart to embrace the American Values Agenda for Change at WakeUpWalmart.com.

Read the American Values Agenda for Change here.

Throughout his storied career, Sen. Kennedy stood with members of SEIU to fight for dignity and respect for working people everywhere. As a testament to this, stories continue to pour in on the work the Senator championed alongside our members.

In 2002, Senator Ted Kennedy walked the picket lines, held a press conference, and rallied public support for 10,000 Massachusetts janitors fighting for their first contract. His dedication and continued presence throughout the long negotiations helped some of Massachusetts hardest-working and most underpaid workers win a livable wage and access to affordable healthcare--even for part-time janitors.

Kennedy also stood with more than 250 security officers at Harvard as they fought for a fair contract. "From the fight for decent wages and benefits to his pioneering work on healthcare and immigration reform, Kennedy was there, always championing the little guy," recalled Rocio Saenz, President of SEIU Local 615 in Boston.

Sen. Kennedy could always be counted on to stand shoulder to shoulder with SEIU members in Massachusetts.

• He championed the mission and funding of Boston Medical Center, where 1199SEIU members staff and deliver care at the most charitable safety net hospital in the state. Thanks to the support of the Senator, 1199SEIU members have provided care for more uninsured and under-insured patients than any other hospital in Massachusetts.

• In late 2008, Senator Kennedy called together an historic meeting of Boston-area hospital CEOs, asking them to pledge their commitment to a free and fair process for caregivers seeking to form unions. The Senator helped ignite a campaign that has allowed thousands of area hospital workers the freedom to join a union and improve their lives and patient care.

• Kennedy was also a stalwart advocate for the 1199SEIU Training & Upgrading Fund, the largest healthcare workers training fund in the United States. That fund has helped countless Massachusetts healthcare workers establish improved career paths, through unique and innovative healthcare education and college tuition programs which are jointly administered by health employers and 1199SEIU.

During an interview with 1199SEIU's magazine Our Life and Times back in December 2007, Senator Kennedy spoke about his support for workers' rights and Employee Free Choice, saying "Unions make a profound difference in the lives of working families."

We feel the same way about the Senator. Learn more about Senator Kennedy's legacy on SEIU.org, and help us honor him by sharing your memories.

Corporate groups are expanding their attack on working people and the Employee Free Choice Act. The latest volley? Defending the status quo of ineffective penalties for when corporations break the law. Yeah, they went there.

In a Wall Street Journal editorial, John Irving, an adviser to the National Association of Manufacturers, advocates for the current toothless system that allows corporations to get off scot-free when they break the law. Irving helpfully explains just how toothless the current system is:

For example, employers who might sincerely assert to their employees that "unions cause plant shutdowns" or "could cause loss of customers" may or may not be exercising lawful free speech, depending on the views of the labor board at the time. If employers fall afoul of the law today, they face only nonpunitive "make-whole" and "cease and desist" sanctions. [...]

There is no provision in current law for punitive fines and treble damages. Nor is there any requirement, as there would be under EFCA, that nondiscretionary injunctions be sought against employers based solely upon the NLRB general counsel's determination of "reasonable cause."

What does that mean? Irving finds virtually no fault in intimidating threats, and is supportive of the fact that one of the most severe penalty employers face is to say they won't do it again. One of the most "severe" penalties corporations face when they break the law is to post a notice in the workplace saying they broke the law and promise to never do it again - presumably with their fingers crossed.

Irving then goes on to explain just what the Employee Free Choice Act would do for corporations that break the law:

But EFCA dramatically escalates these penalties. Under the new bill, the employer could be subject to a $20,000 fine for each questionable statement, and to near-automatic injunction proceedings based on union-filed unfair labor practice charges.

Hearing Irving complain about increased penalties for when corporations break the law is like hearing Bear Sterns complain about collapsing after its own actions led to its demise. Give me a break.

Besides, we need only look to the text of the Employee Free Choice Act to understand these proposed penalties:

"Any employer who willfully or repeatedly commits any unfair labor practice ... while employees of the employer are seeking representation by a labor organization or during the period after a labor organization has been recognized ... until the first collective bargaining contract ... shall, in addition to any make-whole remedy ordered, be subject to a civil penalty of not to exceed $20,000 for each violation.

In determining the amount of any penalty under this section, the Board shall consider the gravity of the unfair labor practice and the impact of the unfair labor practice on the charging party, on other persons seeking to exercise rights guaranteed by this Act, or on the public interest."

There you have it - these penalties are intended to punish corporations that WILLFULLY or REPEATEDLY break the law. Once again, we have corporations trying to say they're above the law and shouldn't be punished for breaking it.

This is the reality workers face when they try to join a union:

About 49 percent of employers openly threaten to close down a worksite when faced with a unionization drive. Untold more tell individual workers, in captive meetings, that jobs will be lost. 30 percent make good on the threat in real time, firing workers who engage in union activities. 82 percent hire unionbusting consulting firms which teach them how to most effectively shutter a union drive while either technically staying in the limits of the law, or breaking it in such a way that the gains will outweigh the eventual fines.

That is unacceptable, but it's what workers face every day in this country. If corporations break the law, they need to be held accountable. That's why it's so important to protect strong penalties in the Employee Free Choice Act. Don't let corporate groups talk their way out of this one - it's time corporations get the message that it's not OK to break the law.

Last night in St. Louis, a Reverend and SEIU member was assaulted at a town hall dedicated to discussing our national healthcare crisis. The incident is being spun by GOP operatives as SEIU thug violence--which couldn't be further from the truth.

The SEIU Missouri State Council released a statement from Executive Director Brandon Davis today:

[...] The Reverend, a St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter, and others who attended in hopes of a peaceful dialogue about our nation's healthcare crisis, endured the latest attempt by right-wing fringe groups to hijack the democratic process through violence if necessary. Last night, the Teabaggers' violent tactics broke and dislocated the shoulder of the Reverend.

"Let's be clear: These groups, backed by insurance companies and corporate front groups, want nothing more than to preserve the status quo system of rationing, where HMOs choose doctors, and insurance companies deny us the care we need. Their dearest hope is that by resorting to outrageous charges of Nazism and euthanasia, they can make the American public too afraid to support real reform.

"But SEIU and hardworking women and men all over this country are standing up to their bullying tactics. We deserve a national conversation about how we will fix our failing healthcare system and help make this an economy that works for everyone."

Today's increase means a full-time minimum wage earner will receive $28 more a week. This raise is badly needed. It is also categorically insufficient.

While our nation's plunge into recession has forced many working families to tighten their belts, low-wage workers have fared even worse. The decade between 1997 and 2007 was the longest period in history without a minimum wage increase--but even with this wage hike, minimum wage workers will still make less than they did in 1956, after adjusting for inflation.

In 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King said, "We are tired of working our hands off and laboring every day and not even making a wage adequate with daily basic necessities of life." How is it possible that his statement would still ring true 40 years later? Recent raises are so little, so late that even with the increase, America's minimum wage is still 17 percent lower than its peak in 1968. In fact, it would take $9.83 today to match the buying power of the minimum wage of 1968.

The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) estimates that some 10 million workers--those at the minimum wage or just above it--will benefit from the increase. But the facts remain that an individual earning $7.25 an hour in a standard 2,000-hour work year would earn $14,500 per year...a salary which is still slightly below the 2009 federal poverty level for a family of two. While corporate profits have grown steadily in the past several decades, workers are not getting . As the minimum wage fell 22% in real dollars from 1973 to 2007, corporate profits have grown steadily in the past several decades, jumping more than 50% during the same time period. Statistics like these just reinforce that sad reality that although Americans are working harder than ever, they are not reaping the fair share of the profits their labor work is creating.

Although the federal minimum wage increase from $6.55 to $7.25 an hour reflects a growing understanding that workers face enormous financial burdens, it's not nearly enough. A NY Times editorial points out: "The latest increase will slow the decline in living standards, but it doesn't reverse the overall downward pull." But it doesn't have to be this way, says SEIU's Anna Burger:

"For millions of hardworking Americans, their only opportunity for a raise is controlled by which way the political wind blows in Washington...Congress must pass the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill that would allow workers to bargain with their employers for better job security, wages and benefits to ensure that millions more Americans have good jobs with real benefits and a pathway to the middle class."

It's important that both the House and the Senate see how much support there is for majority sign-up and the Employee Free Choice Act--so please add your name to the petition today.

Starting on July 24, the Federal minimum wage is increasing from $6.55 to $7.25 per hour, the last part of the 2007 minimum wage legislation passed by Congress. A recent Economic Policy Institute study found that the increase will generate an economic stimulus in the form of $5.5 billion in additional consumer spending over the next 12 months. "Unlike tax cuts for the wealthy, a higher minimum wage increases consumer spending on local businesses, which is good for everyone," points out Rep. George Miller, the lead sponsor of the bill in the House (Sen. Kennedy was the chief sponsor in the Senate).

"Tomorrow's 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. "But when we can give the very banks that tanked our economy more than $24 trillion in bailout funds and other guarantees, which amounts to almost $80,000 for every American, we must do more to help working families." (Read our statement on the wage increase here).

Workers in 31 states will see the numbers in their paychecks go up as a result of the raise in the minimum wage going into effect Friday. For the The remaining states already have state minimum wage rates the same or higher than Friday's new federal rate. The states that will see an increase are: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Just in case you prefer visuals to lists, here's a map from the Department of Labor explaining how the wage increase will (or won't) affect each state:

The minimum wage increase will strengthen America's economy - but we need to do more to help working families. Add your name to the petition for Employee Free Choice.

On every major initiative to help restore our economy, from healthcare to financial reform to the Employee Free Choice Act, banks and corporations have the same unproductive mantra--"we need to wait"..."now's not the time"...and "action now will hurt the economy." Today, another repeat performance, as reports hit the news that Congress is delaying action on the Consumer Financial Protection Agency after a series of lobbying efforts and a letter from the U.S. Chamber and big banks. SEIU's Anna Burger had this to say:

"Big banks and CEOs didn't mind quick action from Congress when they were begging for billion dollar bailouts. Now that they're flush with cash they want to stifle recovery for the rest of us and hang on to the same reckless business practices that toppled our economy in the first place.

"It's past time for the U.S. Chamber and big banks to stop thinking about their next bonus or the latest and greatest way to scam consumers and taxpayers and really commit to being a partner in our country's economic recovery."

Yet once more, Wall Street and big banks are doing their best to stand in the way of the financial reform this country needs to get back on its feet by trying to block the Consumer Financial Protection Agency proposed by President Obama. And (surprise!), they're spending hundreds of millions of dollars to do it.

It's starting to feel as though it's never going to be a "good time" for corporate America's army of of corporations and the lobbyists they hire to push their agendas to take a hit and do what's best for working people in this country. So we'd just like to remind them one more time why it is they're still in business: taxpayer bailouts.

We have to make sure our representatives hear from us, and not just the big banks' lobbyists. Please call your member of Congress right now and ask them to support the new consumer financial protection agency.

The unions in the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC), District 1199 launched their latest TV ad this week taking aim at Governor Jodi Rell for protecting the wealthy in a time of crisis. The unions are delivering a hard-hitting response to Gov. Rell making good on her threat to veto the state budget Democrats pushed through the legislature late last week that would have asked those most able to pay to step up and help solve the economic crisis while preserving vital services.

Yesterday SEIU launched an online campaign asking senators to stand with working people, not greedy CEOs, on the Employee Free Choice Act.  The Huffington Post wrote of our campaign:

One of the nation's largest unions is making a significant ad purchase targeting four Democrats and one Republican Senator on the Employee Free Choice Act.

Targeting Democratic Senators Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, Jim Webb of Virginia, and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, as well as Republican David Vitter of Louisiana, the message is at once effective and sharp: To oppose the labor-backed legislation would be to side with the institutions that create the current economic malaise.

Senators Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, stand with Arkansas' working people, not greedy CEOs

Arkansas

Louisiana

Pennsylvania

Virginia

Dick Cheney is out from his undisclosed location, this time with his sights set on the Employee Free Choice Act. In an interview with FOX News this week, Cheney criticized the Employee Free Choice Act while claiming to not be against working people.

Since Cheney has such an impeccable record of getting things right - especially with the economy - we put together Dick's greatest hits, including his recent hit on the Employee Free Choice Act.

The former Vice President isn't the only member of his family playing a role in fighting the legislation: turns out daughter Mary Cheney works for a DC communications firm that was recently hired by corporate front group, Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, to develop the group's strategy for defeating the Employee Free Choice Act.

AFL-CIO spokesman Eddie Vale put it best:

"Dick Cheney is as much of an expert at helping America's workers as he is on not shooting people in the face. If Cheney wants to emerge and be the lead spokesman against the Employee Free Choice Act, I'll help book his interviews.

Nuff said.

"For me and for so many of my co-workers, the main issue is our healthcare," said Annie Davis, a 54-year-old New York security officer and SEIU Local 32BJ member during her day-long visit with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. "We don't have sick days. We don't get paid for holidays. It's not even so much our wages, it's the benefits...We are doing some of the most important jobs in the city. "

Davis, who works in the lobby of the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in downtown NYC, makes $11.75 an hour with no days off and no medical coverage. She is one of 1,100 guards at 20 agencies throughout the city who work for private contractor Allied Barton and are considering going on strike by the end of May if things don't improve.

According to Mayor Bloomberg, his day spent with security officer Annie Brown "renewed his appreciation" for what workers go through every day to makes end meet in New York and take care of their families. On his campaign blog, Mayor Bloomberg reflects back on his day spent with Brown as part of Local 32BJ's "Walk a Day in My Shoes" campaign, acknowledging that in spite of the initiatives his administration has invested in to improve the training and compensation of NY's security officers, there's "much more to be done" to ensure the "security guards [that play] a pivotal role in keeping all eight million of us safe" are "well-paid, well-trained, and well-treated." Read the Mayor's blog here.

"Walking a day with a working New Yorker shouldn't just be a prerequisite for our union's endorsement, but a requirement for the job," said 32BJ President Mike Fishman of the local union's "Walk a Day in My Shoes" campaign to get every elected official to experience firsthand what life is like for working people. Mayor Bloomberg is the second NYC mayoral candidate to have taken part in the campaign, after City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. walked a day in the shoes of 32BJ member Lateef Rivers last week, spending part of Rivers' shift with him at the Brooklyn Municipal Building.

Read more about about Mayor Bloomberg's and Mr. Thompson's walk-a-days with SEIU 32BJ members in the NY Daily News and the NY Times. Video of Mayor Bloomberg's day with Annie Brown at NY1 here.

Yesterday, your U.S. Senator, Arlen Specter, announced that he would vote against even allowing a debate about the leveling the playing field with the Employee Free Choice Act.

Honestly, I was shocked. It doesn't make sense. How can someone who is such a strong supporter of the democratic process refuse to allow even a meaningful debate about such an important issue?

Senator Specter and his staff need to hear from you. Please take 5 minutes to call his office and tell him that you're not happy with his decision.

Click here to make a free phone call to Senator Specter.

Senator Specter said he doesn't think we should give employees free choice at work until the economy improves. That's backwards. If we're going to get out of our current economic mess, Pennsylvania will need those secure jobs now, more than ever.

If the Employee Free Choice Act becomes law, it can help almost 1 million Pennsylvanians and pump more than $2 billion into the state's economy every year.

Can you believe that? That's what Senator Specter is denying your state by not supporting a debate on the Employee Free Choice Act.

Click here to make a quick, free call to Senator Specter and urge him to allow a debate. Just 5 minutes of your time will go a long way.

For Senator Specter's whole career, he's stood up for working people. He knows the struggle of working people who want to join a union.

We need Congress to act as swiftly on real economic recovery for working people in America as they did to bail out Wall Street. Senator Specter can bring this change - but he needs to hear from you now.

Please make this call.

We've got his attention.

Thanks to you - and everyone who watched and shared it with friends - Bill O'Reilly actually responded to our video this week on his show.

Watch O'Reilly address our video on air: action.seiu.org/getrealoreilly

O'Reilly refused the challenge to come walk a day in our shoes, because he's already "been to those places." While he may have visited Billings, Montana, we seriously doubt he's spent a day there caring for a sick patient, or keeping an office building secure in Chicago.

That's why we're not letting up. He's seen the video, but he hasn't yet received the letters that thousands of you wrote to him, asking him to walk a day in the shoes of a working American.

We're aiming to get 10,000 letters for Bill O'Reilly before we deliver them next week. Can you help? Write a letter: action.seiu.org/getrealoreilly

SEIU member Rebia Maxon-Clay said it best; O'Reilly needs to get off his high horse and find out how average Americans really live.

Today the Senate takes its first vote to confirm Hilda Solis as our Secretary of Labor. Your senators need to hear from you today in support of Rep. Solis.

Please click here to send a note to your senators before today's vote:

Click here to take action and write to the Senate.

During our current economic crisis, it's important that we have a strong Secretary of Labor as the voice of working people. Hilda Solis will be responsible for unemployment benefits, enforcing the minimum wage, and managing job creation and training programs.

Hilda Solis is a champion of the middle class. She's fought for green jobs, fair pay for women, and children's health insurance. Raised by two union members, Solis is an experienced leader who has fought to restore balance to our economy and fairness for working families throughout her entire career.

President Obama nominated Hilda Solis for Secretary of Labor more than two months ago. It's time she was allowed to get to work.

Click here to send a note to your senators in support of Hilda Solis before today's vote.

As President Barack Obama neared the end of his FL town hall appearance today on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, news broke that the economic stimulus bill had successfully cleared the Senate by a vote of 61 to 37.

Now comes the hard part: reaching a deal with the House on the stimulus in time to meet Obama's goal of completing negotiations to get the legislation to his desk for his signature before the Presidents' Day recess on February 16. To help speed up the process, the leadership has opted for a very limited number of senators to be represented in the talks: Majority Leader Harry Reid; Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus and Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye. Conferencing for the GOP will be Sens. Charles Grassley, the top Republican on the Finance panel, and Thad Cochran, the top Republican on the Appropriations Committee.

''I know Fort Myers had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation last year,'' Obama said to his town hall audience Tuesday. ``I know entire neighborhoods are studded with foreclosure signs, and families across this city feel like they're losing their foothold in the American Dream...So we are going to do everything we can to help responsible homeowners here in Fort Myers and other hard-hit communities stay in their homes.''

SEIU to Conferees on Recovery Bill: Don't Shortchange Working People

Last week SEIU Local 1984 member Jess Paul was invited to share her story about how she was about to be laid off by the State of New Hampshire.

It happened to her and in today's economy, it could happen to you too if we don't stand together. SEIU members were with President Obama when he was a candidate for President and we're with him now that he is President. That's why our members are in Washington DC, lobbying their congressional representatives on the importance of passing the economic stimulus bill. Thousands of SEIU members this week are making calls, sending emails, and making visits to Capitol Hill to urge House-Senate conferees to complete work on a comprehensive economic plan for working people in America as quickly as they did to bail out Wall Street.

"Now is not the time to allow further job losses or cuts in vital public services, and now is not the time to draw arbitrary limits on the overall size of this legislation," SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger said, referring to differences between the House and Senate versions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that could mean an estimated 600,000 in additional job losses. Burger and SEIU President Andy Stern are calling on Congress and the administration to include in the economic recovery plan:

• significant relief to state and local governments to preserve and rebuild crucial services and good jobs, including the FMAP increase, state stabilization and education funding contained in the House bill;
  
• major spending on infrastructure projects that are ready to go and others that with help create jobs and bolster local communities in the long-term; and
  
• spending on innovations in training for health care and energy workers, sectors of our economy that are growing and sustainable and will lead to high-paying careers for workers competing in a global economy.

SEIU is also urging conferees to scale back tax provisions that add to the overall cost of the package but do not provide sufficient stimulus and do not provide targeted relief to working and middle-class families.

Find out more
* Details on the differences between the two stimulus packages
*Check out live blogging from the town hall at WhiteHouse.gov.
* Remarks of President Obama in Fort Myers.

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:

SEIU, Americans United for Change, MoveOn.org Political Action and AFSCME Fund Ads to Run in Maine, New Hampshire, Alaska, Iowa and the DC Region

Amid a worsening economic crisis that resulted in 2.6 million American jobs being lost last year and 11 million workers currently unemployed, the House vote yesterday in favor in favor of President Obama's stimulus plan to revitalize our economy, create three to four million jobs and strengthen our middle class was good news for our economy and for all Americans.

Unfortunately, the lobbying push behind this measure failed to secure a single Republican vote in the House--and today, a group of conservative Senate Republicans announced that they will vote against the $888 billion economic stimulus package when it comes up for a vote in the Senate late next week. "Their only solution to our economic crisis is tax cuts, but tax cuts only work for people who are working," said SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger in a statement released yesterday regarding the U.S. House Republicans' "no" vote on the economic recovery plan.

Taking action today, SEIU and coalition groups Americans United for Change, MoveOn.org Political Action and AFSCME unveiled a new television ad campaign that aims to to pressure key and potentially deciding votes in Congress and build momentum behind President Obama's "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act". The ads are targeted at securing the votes of five key U.S. Republican Senators who might support the stimulus package to help assure its passage.

Entitled "Factory", the 30-second spot makes the case for urgent action to address the nation's economic crisis and presents a stark choice for five key U.S. Senators, Susan Collins (R-ME), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Judd Gregg (R-NH), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Charles Grassley (R-IA): "support the President's plan or the failed policies of the past." The ad overlays President Obama's recent speech outlining the need for urgent action on the economy on dramatic images of a shuttered factory coming back to life and people returning to work. The ads will begin running immediately in Iowa, Maine, New Hampshire, Alaska and Washington D.C.

Watch the ad here:

Tell Congress to Support President Obama's Economic Plan