This is a Huffington Post piece by AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler.

As the newly elected secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, I traveled the country this fall, talking with workers and hearing their concerns. The economic crisis is causing a lot of pain. So many people have no jobs, no health care--and many are losing their homes. And as I looked into the faces of young workers, the reality hit home that these young people are part of the first generation in recent history likely to be worse off than their parents.

This is a tragedy.

The AFL-CIO and our community affiliate, Working America, recently surveyed young workers--and I'm not talking about 17- and 18-year-olds. I'm talking about 18- to 34-year-olds. In the past 10 years, young workers have suffered disproportionately from the downturn in the economy:

   
• One in three young workers is worried about being able to find a job--let alone a full-time job with benefits.

   
• Only 31 percent make enough money to cover their bills and put some aside--that is 22 percentage points worse than it was 10 years ago.

   
• Nearly half worry about having more debt than they can handle.

   
• One in three still lives at home with parents.

There's more...

The second in a series on the AFL-CIO's job creation proposals.

As part of the AFL-CIO's five-point plan for job creation, we're making concrete proposals to address the nation's immediate jobs crisis while keeping an eye on creating a sustainable economy in the future.

Investment in rebuilding the nation's infrastructure can put millions of people to work now and improve our country for the long term. The United States has some $2.2 trillion in unmet infrastructure needs. That's a lot of work that needs to be done, at a time when 26 million people are unemployed or underemployed.

There's more...

Part 1 in a series on the AFL-CIO's plan to address the jobs crisis.

To tackle our nation's ongoing jobs crisis, the AFL-CIO has put forth a five-point plan to put people back to work and restore our economy. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka presented this five-part plan at the White House Jobs Summit last week.

The first step in this plan is to extend a lifeline to the people who have been hit the hardest by the jobs crisis.

There's more...

Want to share with you this post by Mike Hall, one of our AFL-CIO bloggers.

A dozen of the nation's leading women's organizations has called on Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. In a letter this week to every member of Congress, the groups say that restoring the freedom of workers to form unions and bargain for a better life would benefit women and all workers.

The letter notes that unionized women workers earn almost one-third more than nonunion workers--32 percent.

In addition, women in unions are 19 percent more likely to have health insurance benefits and 25 percent more likely to have an employer-provided pension. (Click here to learn more about the union difference.)

The letter was organized by the National Partnership for Women and Families (NPWF).

There's more...

Members of Congress soon will cast votes that show us where they stand on the Employee Free Choice Act. As key senators engage in negotiations over the bill, supporters of workers' freedom to form unions aren't backing down on three key principles:

• Workers need to have a real choice to form a union and bargain for a better life, free from intimidation.

• We have to stop the endless delays and make sure workers can get a fair first contract.

• There have to be real penalties for violating the law.

Over the past few months, opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act have more than once declared the bill dead, but in fact we're still working hard to to ensure labor law reform happens this year. We've come along way from where we were several years ago.

There's more...