Rachel Rekowski

“Collective action is alive and well here in the South,” said AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler to over 300 labor leaders gathered in New Orleans this week. Southern union leaders from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia joined together to unite around a common strategy to build worker power in their states.

"We are the only ones who can deliver the massive economic and social change working people are hungry for," said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka to over 300 union leaders gathered in Chicago this week.

On Tuesday, working people claimed a landslide victory in a Kentucky special election. "I could not have done this without labor," said Democrat Linda Belcher in her victory speech. She’s the newly elected state representative for House District 49 in Bullitt County, a county just south of Louisville where Donald Trump carried 72% of the vote in 2016.

As the #MeToo movement surges across the nation, working women are finding power in their union to speak out and fight back against sexual harassment and assault on the job. In the hospitality industry, housekeepers have been pursuing protections for years, and their union, UNITE HERE, has been shedding light on their struggle.