FIRE FIGHTERS TO STOP GIVING TO FEDERAL CANDIDATES
By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer
WASHINGTON (PAI)—The Fire Fighters, long known for their bipartisan impact on Capitol Hill, have become the second big union to decide their campaign finance committee will no longer give money to federal candidates, at least for now.
They may not be the last.
LABOR, DEMS PUSH NEW, BIGGER LEGISLATIVE
PACKAGE ON REVITALIZING U.S. MANUFACTURING
By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer
WASHINGTON (PAI)—Organized labor and congressional Democrats are pushing a new, bigger package of legislation to help revitalize U.S. manufacturing, after a previous effort – which was more to score political points – failed in the last Congress.
AFL-CIO: GOP CUTS PUT JOB
SAFETY IMPROVEMENTS AT RISK
By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer
WASHINGTON (PAI)—Potential Republican cuts to future job safety and health spending put improvements in occupational safety and health at risk, a new AFL-CIO report says.
EQUAL PAY DAY PROMPTS NEW
CALL FOR PAY EQUITY LEGISLATION
WASHINGTON (PAI)—Equal Pay Day, the day each year when median hourly wages for a working woman equal those of a working man in identical circumstances the year before, prompted renewed calls for pay equity legislation on Capitol Hill.
LEGISLATION AND FEDERAL RULES:
FOR LABOR, BACK TO DEFENSE
By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer
WASHINGTON (PAI)—After two years when unions and their allies could push a
positive legislative agenda – not always successfully – they’re back to playing defense.
And that covers not just legislation but federal regulations, too, says Bill Samuel,
the AFL-CIO Legislative Director.

This is St. Paul, not Madison.
Minnesota workers send a message at their own Capitol
UPDATED WITH VIDEO (scroll down)
Story and photos by Michael Kuchta
UNIONISTS MOBILIZE NATIONWIDE
TO PROTECT WORKER COLLEAGUES
By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer
MADISON, Wis. (PAI)—First it was Madison, Wis. Then Indianapolis. Then, Columbus, Ohio. Next stops: Trenton, N.J., followed by Nashville.
Everywhere across the country, unionists were forced to mobilize to beat back anti-worker actions of GOP-run state governments – everything from cutting pay and pensions to banning union campaign finance committee contributions to politics to, most importantly, eliminating collective bargaining rights.
WISCONSIN SENATE STALLS VOTE
ON GOP GOV’S ANTI-UNION PACKAGE
By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer
MADISON, Wis. (PAI)—Even among this year’s new wave of Republican governors, Wisconsin’s Scott Walker sticks out for his anti-union anti-state worker legislative package. But his proposals, due for a vote in the GOP-run state legislature on Feb. 17, went down the drain that night in the state senate.
CORPORATIONS TO HILL: WEAKEN OR KILL PRO-WORKER RULES
By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer
WASHINGTON (PAI)—Corporations are starting to call in their chips in the new, Republican-run U.S. House by marching up to Capitol Hill to demand lawmakers weaken or kill up to 200 federal regulations, including pro-worker rules.

The Willmar 8 made equal pay impossible to ignore