The decline of the American labor movement has continued despite the rise in power of the Democratic Party.

In the midst of this crisis a top AFL-CIO official has come up with a plan to revamp the union’s image – dump Scabby The Rat

Google’s incredible profits didn’t materialize out of nothing. They are derived because as the news audience has migrated online, Google has skimmed the lion’s share of news advertizing revenues for itself. That money used to go to pay for investigative reporting. Google’s glittering balance sheet basically comes from driving the 4th estate out of business.

Last week we heard from the United Steelworkers on behalf of C&M Conveyor, a firm in Mitchell, Indiana. They unionized with United Steel a year ago but have struggled with the company’s owners, vulture capitalists Blue Sage Capital who have refused to give them a contract while cutting their hours, wages, health care and retirement benefits. Though health insurance is theoretically provided, the insurance deductible to cover a family is $10,000, leaving some workers literally bankrupt after medical emergencies. Many workers are so broke that they qualify for food stamps.

Today we protested at Blue Sage’s downtown Austin offices.

We’re not seeing in the numbers a return to the union valhalla of the 1950s and 1960s. But if unions could increase their membership despite a series of assaults, imagine what could happen with friends of labor in policymaking positions and with new rules designed to help collective bargaining rather than harm it.

1.  Yes, I’ve seen it.

2.  I was arrested for protesting against the Keystone Pipeline, so no, I don’t agree.

Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM), a Hong Kong-based group, reports that Apple’s major manufacturing contractors in Asia routinely subject employees to forced overtime, wage theft and no breaks — and even unprotected exposure to toxins.

Labor commentator, and former union staffer, Steve Early draws on years of trade union activism to shed light on labor’s troubled path over the last decade. His recent book, The Civil War’s in US Labor, examines the internal conflicts which have wracked the labor movement over the last decade: the 2005 split of several international unions from the AFL-CIO to form the Change to Win coalition, the subsequent fracturing of Change to Win, and the internal conflict within the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

The White House is getting an early jump on the House Republicans’ next potential hostage-taking event, and perhaps learning something in the process. In an event today, flanked by AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka, Chamber of Commerce COO David Chavern and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, President Obama will call for a clean extension of the Highway Trust Fund, which is set to expire at the end of September. Rather than cutting the surface transportation budget, rather than pre-compromising on a level of cuts, the President will demand a clean bill at present levels.

Just about the only specific piece of the Gang of Six proposal, as explained well by Rep. Peter DeFazio in the video, is the move to chained CPI, a benefit cut for Social Security, veteran’s benefits and any program with a cost of living adjustment, along with a regressive tax cut. So that should give you a flavor for the biases of the Gang of Six, and where their proposal is headed.

It’s practically a rite of passage for a labor leader to stress their independence from the Democratic Party. In the end, the alarm bells almost always go off, and labor runs back into the waiting arms of the Democrats. Not to mention that labor is intimately intertwined with the Democratic Party. They have seats on the DNC, fercryinoutloud. So will this time be any different?