Now that the Iowa Legislature is back in session, it's important to let your elected representatives know how you feel about issues that are important to working people.

Find out where legislative forums in your area are in this link.

Read more >>>

The national Republican party has selected Indiana Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels to respond to President Obama’s State of the Union address next week–sending a clear signal the party is making attacks on working people a top priority in the 2012 elections. Daniels is a key backer of right to work for less (RTW) legislation which state Republican lawmakers, in a stunning display of arrogance, have repeatedly tried to ram through, while thumbing their noses at working Hoosiers–not to mention democracy. Read more >>>

First, multimillionaire Mitt Romney told a group of jobless workers he’s also “unemployed.” Next, Romney thought there was no problem in stating publicly that he likes to “fire people.” Now, the Republican presidential wannabee proved yet again how out of touch he is with mainstream Americans by showing the extent to which he’s a member of the elite 1 percent. In South Carolina yesterday, Romney admitted he pays “around” a 15 percent tax rate, while earning $374,000 a year in speaker’s fees alone—an income he described as “not very much.” Read more >>>

Viewers in Austin, Texas, and Pittsburgh are getting the first public look at a new AFL-CIO television spot, “Work Connects Us All: America’s Unions.” The evocative ad features members of many unions, from virtually every industry, and is part of a broad campaign that aims to “fly above the tactics and controversies of the day” and connects with people around the values associated with work, according to AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler. Read more >>>

Statement by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka

on President Obama’s Commitment to “Insource” American Job

On Thursday, December 29th, fifteen Iowa-based groups called on the Iowa Legislature to again pass an increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit, or EITC. Last legislative session the legislature passed an increase in the EITC, only to be vetoed by Governor Branstad later. Read more >>>

On election day 2011, many candidates for local races Iowa's Central Labor Councils won.  Find out who won and who will be in runoff elections here. Read more >>>

In the Oct. 4 guest opinion “U.S. Must Approve Free Trade Deals,” it was suggested that the quickest way for our country to fix a stagnant economy would be to quickly pass free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama.

The Iowa Federation of Labor strongly disagrees with that assumption. It was the wrong policy when all three of these agreements were negotiated by then-President George W. Bush and would be the wrong policy if President Barack Obama moves forward with these plans as well.

We’ve learned in one “free trade” deal after another that these agreements only serve to move good-paying jobs overseas that support Iowa families. Approving these trade agreements will only further destroy our manufacturing sector and speed up the outsourcing of our service sector. In the Korea Trade Agreement alone, the Economic Policy Institute estimates that the growing trade imbalance will displace some 159,000 American jobs, mostly in the manufacturing sector.

While he’s wrong on these trade agreements, Obama is right to be turning the national conversation back to jobs. It’s time for Congress to pass the president’s jobs plan, which calls for immediate and needed infrastructure improvements for our country, as well as unemployment extensions for the jobless.

If Congress wants to promote exports, I suggest they address currency manipulation and not take actions that make our trade deficit with the world even worse. Passing a real jobs plan is the first and most important thing that can be done to fix our stagnant economy, not approving bad trade deals that put corporate profits over national prosperity.

— Ken Sagar, President, Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, Des Moines
 

Working women and men who provide the services to make society a better place to live are not some unknown entity to be scapegoated by politicians.  We are your neighbors.

Links to articles and people will be included on this site to put a face to the story of working people.

The IFL is including links to sources to inform our members about legislative forums.  Please check these sites to get information on when you can meet with your legislator to express your opinions on state legislative issues.  Democracy is NOT a spectator sport, get involved!

www.youtube.com/watch

Wall Streets robber barons have declared war on American workers. They close our plants. Ship our jobs overseas. Steal our pensions. Then laugh all the way to their banks -- the banks that we bailed out. These guys are just playing a game with other people's money. They just keep filling their pockets by emptying ours. It is time Wall Street paid its taxes -- to fund an American jobs recovery. Watch the rest of "The Game" then visit http://www.unionofunemployed.com to get involved!

 

Support your fellow workers and support union print shops that pay well and provide decent benefits.

The Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO is the state federation of labor representing over 50,000 members of 520 unions throughout Iowa. The mission of the Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO is to improve the lives of working families—to bring economic justice to the workplace and social justice to our state and the nation.

Read more...