Working people face these issues every day. But all too often, women especially don’t have the resources or support to help meet these challenges.

Working America and the AFL-CIO are conducting a nationwide survey on what it's like to be a working woman. If you’re a working woman, your opinion matters greatly. Please take a moment to complete the Ask a Working Woman survey and share your thoughts and experiences.

Ellen Bravo wrote this article which was posted on the AFL-CIO blog. She is former director of 9to5, National Association of Working Women and author of Taking on the Big Boys: Or Why Feminism Is Good for Families, Business and the Nation.

Congratulations, working women! As of today, your salary since January 1, 2007, has finally reached the total earned by your male colleagues in 2007 alone. What’s more, this pay gap is all your fault!

According to the media, the problem is that women just don’t ask. If we learned to speak up in salary negotiations, pay equity would be a hard fact.

The AFL-CIO is launching the Turn Around America Online Video Competition to engage and inspire people like you from across the country to tell us how they’d turn our country around.

Click here to submit your short video today.

Most winners will receive cash prizes and selected videos will be featured in television ads.

Labor singer Anne Feeney's new cd "Dump the Bosses off Your Back" is now available at CDBaby and Anne assures us that its her best cd yet. For those of you unfamiliar with Anne Feeney's music, you are in for a real treat. If you don't believe me, head on over to her website and listen to some of her MP3's. Anne Feeney is “the best labor singer in North America,” according to Utah Phillips. Based in her hometown Pittsburgh, PA, Anne is on the road more than 200 days a year, singing in union halls, on picket lines, at rallies, riots, folk clubs, festivals, conferences, conventions and colleges.

This annual event brings together young organizers from unions and community groups and Chicago area college students interested in learning about working for change. Panelists from Illinois Action Now, UNITE HERE, AFSCME Council 31, IEA-NEA and others will share their experiences as organizers. Some of the invited groups are looking for interns and new staff.
Saturday, April 5th
11:00am to 1:00pm (lunch included)
Gage Gallery,
Roosevelt University,
18 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago

To rsvp please contact:
Carrie Breitbach This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Book Launch and Reception

Wednesday, March 12, 20085 p.m. - 7 p.m.

UNITE! HERE

333 S. Ashland, Chicago IL

On the Global Waterfront by Suzan Erem and E. Paul Durrenberger tells the story of the Charleston 5, who became an international labor cause celebre when they were falsely accused of inciting a riot after police attacked a longshore protest in Charleston, South Carolina. The dockworkers were protesting the attempt by a multinational shipping conglomerate to shift to non-union labor.

Suzan Erem is a former Chicago labor organizer who wrote the book Labor Pains about her experiences as a SEIU staffer here in the Windy City. You can meet Suzan and get her autograph on the book by attending the celebration at UNITE! HERE on March 12.

The nursing profession faces enormous challenges in the coming years, particularly in hospital settings. Aggressive cost-cutting, higher patient acuity, physician/nurse relations, inadequate staffing and the intense physical and emotional demands of the work are driving experienced nurses from the field and discouraging new recruits.

Join the RN2RN Network on Saturday, February 23 to learn more about these issues and their impact on patient quality of care at a conference sponsored by the RN2RN Network. Discuss strategies to address these challenges and chart a new course for the nursing profession.

The RN2RN Network was launched by nurses from Resurrection Health Care hospitals, who are part of HEART/AFSCME, to bring together nurses from around the state to organize for improved patient care and better staffing in Illinois hospitals.

Labor singer Anne Feeney would love to finish her new CD "Dump the Bosses Off Your Back", but is still short of $$$. If you can help, send $100 to Anne Feeney, 2240 Milligan Ave, Pittsburgh, PA. She'll put your name on the liner notes as a TY.

Anne will be leading 3 music/history/politics and poetry tours of western Ireland in 2008 and there are still seats available. Check out Anne's website for more trip info as well as news about her life and music. She has some great audio clips for your listening enjoyment.

The first annual "Jane Addams Day" will be celebrated all across Illinois on December 10, 2007. AAUW-Illinois is leading the charge and Women & Children First is their official Jane Addams Day bookstore! Visit to the AAUW-Illinois webpage to read their press release, find local events and read background materials.

Then check out the Women and Children First suggested book list. There are book suggestions for all ages and levels of interest: children and teens, novices and scholars.

Among many achievements, Jane Addams was:

• A founder and the first president of the Women's International League for
  Peace and Freedom
• A founder of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
• A founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
• The first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize

The AFL-CIO has launched a major new campaign to secure healthcare for every American by 2009. According to campaign director Heather Booth,

Maybe we can make this election provide a mandate on health care reform--getting the candidates to commit to progressive reform and then holding them to it after the election by mobilizing a massive force, in this campaign that means 10 million union members and 3 million retirees. And this time, we will win.

Stop by the AFL-CIO blog to learn more and get involved.

Heather Booth is a longtime organizer with roots in the Civil Rights Movement. She was one of the founding members of the Chicago Women's Liberation Union.