On June 22, President Obama announced a nationwide service initiative, United We Serve, which is the beginning of a sustained, collaborative and focused effort to meet community needs and make service a way of life for all Americans.

The Employee Free Choice Act would make it easier for workers to organize by strengthening the penalties for unfair labor practices, ensuring mediation and arbitration when newly certified unions cannot get a first contract, and allowing employees -- not their employers -- to choose how they form unions: casting ballots or signing cards authorizing union representation.

 

Speaking at the National Press Club on Nov. 17, AFT president Randi Weingarten outlined both provocative and proven approaches to improve public education and thereby make a long-term investment in the country's lagging economy.

The Professional Staff Congress/CUNY, the union of 22,000 faculty and professional staff at the City University of New York (CUNY), announced that its membership has ratified a new contract by a margin of 93% in a vote counted today by the American Arbitration Association.  Click on the headline to see specific ways in which CUNY professional staff and faculty made important, democratically-prioritized gains through collective bargaining.