NLRB Nominees Head to Senate Floor....Filibuster Next?

The fight over President Obama’s five nominees to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is headed to the U.S. Senate floor after the Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee voted today to send the five to the full Senate. Now the question is, will Senate Republicans filibuster?

In the States Roundup for May 22

Here's a look at some of the key battles in the states over the past week.

From Housekeeper to City Council: Help Tell Carmen’s Story

Carmen Castillo is a UNITE HERE union steward, immigrant and 19-year veteran hotel housekeeper. In November 2011, the single mother of three from the Dominican Republic won election to the Providence, R.I., City Council. Since then filmmaker Margo Guernsey and her crew have been following Castillo at home, work, on the council and in the community.

 

Black Students Flock to STEM Fields, Yet Business Lobby Pushes for More Temporary Workers

Over the weekend, young people watched or read about President Obama speaking at Morehouse College and first lady Michelle Obama addressing the graduates of Bowie State University. Hopefully they were inspired by seeing so many young and gifted people finishing the course they chose to follow. Well, here is a little known set of facts. 

San Diego Labor Leader Wins State Assembly Race in a Landslide

Lorena Gonzalez, 41, secretary-treasurer of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council, defeated rival Steve Castaneda on Tuesday in a special election to fill the vacant 80th Assembly District in California, the U-T San Diego reports.

Today: Tell Us How to Open More Doors to Latino Workers

Be sure to join Elianne Ramos today from 3–4 p.m. EDT for a live online discussion on how to build a stronger movement for working people, with today’s chat spotlighting Latino workers. Ramos, principal and CEO of Speak Hispanic Communications and vice-chair of communications and PR for Latinos in Social Media, poses this question:

Trumka: Senate Judiciary Committee Immigration Bill an 'Enormous Step' Toward Healing an Injustice

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka released the following statement in response to the Senate Judiciary Committee's immigration bill: 

Today brings to mind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s wise and hopeful words, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” More than 11 million aspiring Americans took a big step toward becoming citizens today with the bipartisan Senate Judiciary Committee vote. That reflects an enormous step toward healing an injustice, the deportation crisis that has wrecked families, communities and workplaces for far too long.

Apple CEO Tim Cook Testifies Before Congress About Offshore Tax Havens

Apple CEO Tim Cook is appearing before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations today to answer charges that his company has avoided paying billions of dollars in taxes through the use of overseas tax shelters and loopholes in the corporate tax code. An investigation by the subcommittee found that Apple has shifted tens of billions of dollars of two subsidiaries in Ireland, while claiming that neither subsidiary is a tax resident of any country.

New Video Series: Unions Make the Middle Class

After 45 years of driving a cab in New York City, Beresford Simmons says the emergence of the National Taxi Workers Alliance in the past few years is helping his family and those of other drivers reach the middle class.

Simmons’ story is one of three illustrating that unions make the middle class strong, giving workers a voice in our economy, portrayed in a trio of new videos by the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

 

Hundreds Protest 'Too Big to Jail' at Department of Justice; 27 Arrested, Several Tased

Organizers from the Home Defenders League, Occupy Our Homes and allied organizations estimate that more than 500 people attended a rally at the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday, calling for Attorney General Eric Holder to begin arresting bankers accused of fraud and unscrupulous lending practices. As of Tuesday morning, at least 27 demonstrators had been arrested after an attempt to enter the Justice Department building was prevented by law enforcement.