Tula Connell

Rachelle Honeycutt works at an oil refinery in Washington State. Sam Schaffer is a skilled sheet metal worker from West Virginia. Javier Almazan organizes workers in south Florida and Cathy Merkel is an registrar in Maryland. They're all union members. And in a few days, all four will be graduates of one of the crown jewels of the labor movement: The National Labor College.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele has been called a lot of names. Here's another one for him: cheater.

It's not surprising Steele and the Republicans are embarrassed about their party. But Steele has hit a new low (insert Munch's "Scream" here): He's set up an RNC fundraising page on Facebook made to look like it's the United Steelworkers union.

Providence, R.I., wants protestors to register in advance. It even has provided a special online registration form and "Public Viewing Guidelines" (h/t to Pat Crowley).

How thoughtful.

Seems the upcoming U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting set for that city has put the spotlight on Providence Mayor David Cicilline's seven-year long battle against union members.

We heard Bill O'Reilly is having trouble finding American-made T-shirts to sell in his Patriot Store. We know he's heartbroken because, after all, what good is a Patriot Store if its products are made in El Salvador or Haiti? (Especially if you're selling red, white and blue "American Patriot" T-shirts, like the one on the left.)

We heard he can't find made-in-the-USA T-shirts because O'Reilly said so himself (h/t to D-Day).

When Brynwood Partners in 2006 took over the Stella D'oro factory in the Bronx, the Wall Street private equity firm had every reason to believe it would be easy to slash the wages, pensions, holidays and sick pay of the 136 bakery workers.

But the takeover brainos forgot one important fact: The workers are represented by a union, Local 50 of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM).

So, the world isn't flat after all. Not that those of us around the Lake ever bought into Thomas Friedman-speak. But many in this country did, especially those running the political show, and now we have a chance to shape a progressive future on the ashes of such failied visions.

And that progressive future needs a widespread recognition of the acceptance of the need to Buy America. A good first step is taking the American Auto Revivial Pledge.

Opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act, desperate in their efforts to kill the proposed legislation that would level the playing field for workers seeking to form unions, have come up with another line of attack. They are making a lot of noise over the bill's arbitration provision. The argument is just another straw-man attempt at gutting legislation that would enable more workers to have a voice on the job.

Arlen Specter (D-RD-Pa.) is born again. But unlike most converts, he's not exactly zealous about his new religion.

In the same breath that he announced his switch to the Democratic Party last week, Specter was quick to assert his opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act. The legislation, which would level the playing field for workers seeking to form unions, depends upon 60 votes for cloture in the Senate (that is, we need 60 senators to agree to let the bill come to a vote).

Help me welcome Kirstin Downey, author of The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR’s Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience. Kirstin will be online this hour.

Imagine this: Former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao witnesses a terrifying spectacle of young women leaping to their deaths from the windows of a burning building where they worked—their only means of escape.

We're giving up Styrofoam cups here at our building in Washington, D.C. Also doing an energy audit and taking a few other steps as a start toward making our building a green one—just some of the actions the AFL-CIO announced this week, in time for Earth Day.

Back in 1999, there was surprise over the "Teamsters and Turtles" alliance during protests against the World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle.