"Remember Ohio." Those two words should carry new meaning to politicians in Congress and state houses who think they can respond to unemployment, budget crises and voter anger with faux solutions that serve up red meat to their right-wing base.

With their now-famous rejection of a state law limiting...

Co-authored by Richard L. Trumka and Deborah L. Wince-Smith

Tuesday, April 26, was World Intellectual Property Day. The theme of this year's celebration -- Designing the Future -- emphasized the critical role that ideas play in the development of solutions to the challenges of the 21st century, such as combating...

For anyone who still thinks the inspiring actions in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana are just about public employees in those states, here's a moving dose of reality.

People in every walk of life and every part of the country -- even other countries --...

No job safety inspections while inspectors are furloughed for up to three months. No food safety inspections while inspectors are off the job for more than a month. Ten thousand teachers and aides cut from struggling schools and 7,000 special education teachers and staff gone. State and local job training...

What kind of country are we? A country of isolated individuals fending for themselves or a country with shared values and a shared vision? A country with scant resources, fading glory and no choices? Or a blessed nation with the potential to do right by its people and be a...

Today's passage of the $858 billion deal struck between Republicans and President Barack Obama provides vital assistance to a record number of long-term job-hunters. And we certainly needed it -- an average of about $290 a week for Americans who want to work but have been unable to find jobs...

"I have a poster above where I sleep," said Diane S. from Denver. "It says, 'Never, ever give up.' That's my motivation and my motto."

Diane traveled to Washington, D.C., last week as one of 300 job-seekers who put a face on a tragedy that has been all but...

It is a rare blessing when the earth gives back up those it has trapped within.

Early Wednesday morning, as I watched a live video feed of the first of 33 Chilean miners emerge safety from the San Jose mine after 69 days, I was overcome with emotion.

It...

Stacia Haley in Seattle worked all her life and raised a child as a single parent. Yet she has no retirement income other than Social Security.

[Social Security] is all many of us will have, if we live long enough to retire.

Stacia is right. Some 64 percent of...

Nothing about the content of the Pledge to America is surprising -- it's the same Bush-era economic agenda that got us into the mess we're in today: deregulate business, starve government services, starve the middle class and starve the working class so corporate special interests and the wealthy can feed...

So today we learned that we lost another 131,000 jobs last month, with an anemic 71,000 jobs created by the private sector and unemployment remaining at 9.5 percent. Last week we saw that economic growth slowed from 3.7 percent in the first quarter to 2.4 percent in the second quarter...

Members of Congress who flat-out refuse to vote to create jobs, stop layoffs and help the jobless should be ashamed of themselves. As we saw in the job numbers released today, this economy has a long way to go before it is creating jobs on the scale that is needed.

"Wop." "Hunkie." "Polack." "Kike."

When I was a kid growing up in Nemacolin, Pa., those are some of the slurs people used for us.

Why? Because our parents or grandparents came to this country from somewhere else, fleeing poverty and war, seeking opportunity and hope. As a kid, every person...

Millions of Americans are living in fear--for their jobs. When a job disappears, working people are gripped with a fear that high-flying hedge fund managers not only refuse to grasp, but ridicule. Because the only thing Wall Street really fears is accountability for its actions and oversight of...

Over the course of the past three weeks, 32 U.S. coal miners have died in three separate mining disasters. As a former coal miner and the son and grandson of coal miners, the tragedy of their deaths is close to my heart. But as an American, the catastrophe of 151...

So now we learn that as millions of America's families were losing their homes, Goldman Sachs cheered because it stood to make huge money betting on a housing market gone bad. Is that Wall Street's vision of American values? It's not mine. And it's not the values of the...

So, the financial services industry says it wants to "earn back the trust of the American people."

That must mean it's loosening up loans to small businesses and investing money in communities hard hit by the nation's jobs crisis, right?

Actually not. According to the Financial Services Roundtable, which represents...

So, $9 million in stock options as a 2009 bonus for Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein is now considered a big concession from Wall Street -- a way of recognizing that the rest of the nation isn't sharing in the Big Bankers' party. Before we all start applauding,...

Senate Republican obstructionists are working overtime to block the interests of working people. Today we hear the White House and Senate have cut a deal with Republicans that will keep President Obama's nominees off the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for even longer.

The NLRB's job is to protect workers'...

The news is out: The Wall Street bankers we bailed out are giving themselves 2009 cash bonuses of a half million dollars on average -- not including stocks. Compare that with the $32,390 annual median wage for regular workers, and you find a formula for outrage.

The people who tanked...