After weeks of obstruction by Republican Senate leaders, millions of jobless workers who have or who will soon run out of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits may finally have a chance to grab an economic lifeline in the form of extended UI benefits. Read More>>

Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) has been fighting for health care reform for more than 50 years, and he’s seen the situation become even more dire over the past decade. In a great new op-ed, he explains the hard truths of our broken system and why we can’t wait any longer for health care reform: Read More>>

The labor movement lost one of our best friends today. Senator Ted Kennedy spent a lifetime fighting for civil rights, workers’ rights, public education and his life’s goal: quality universal health care for our nation.

For 47 years in the Senate, his roaring voice spoke for the voiceless. The ideals of equality and economic justice guided his work and he looked out for people when too many simply turned their backs.

He chaired the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, was the patron of the Employee Free Choice Act and the cause of his life was quality, affordable health care for all. He may have passed too soon to cast deciding votes for these causes but we are confident we will see his legacy through.

“Our country has lost a great leader, who picked up the torch of his fallen brothers and became the greatest United States Senator of our time. For five decades, virtually every major piece of legislation to advance the civil rights, health and economic well being of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts.”
- President Obama

We send our thoughts and prayers to the Kennedy family and friends.

In unity,

Jim Leaman
President, Virginia AFL-CIO

Doris Crouse-Mays
Secretary-Treasurer, Virginia AFL-CIO

Support Federal Correctional Officers, Sign the Petition!

Correctional Officer Jose Rivera was stabbed to death in a federal prison in Atwater, California in June, 2008, while locking inmates into their cells by himself. He should not have been alone. But in the understaffed Bureau of Prisons, where correctional officers are often outnumbered by inmates by 150 -1, prison violence is rising at an alarming rate. On April 23 of this year, an officer at a prison in Terra Haute, Indiana was stabbed seven times by an inmate. A week later in Tucson, Arizona, another officer was attacked. Similar incidents are now reported regularly system-wide.

The repeated refusal of the Bureau of Prisons management to address understaffing and underfunding within the system threatens the safety of correctional officers, inmates and our communities.

Sign the online petition and pass the link to your friends.